Tapas Paul makes residents of Bengal village live in fear

Kolkata, July 2: With Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Tapas Paul publicly exhorting his partymen to kill CPI-M activists, people of Gopinathpur in West Bengal's Nadia district say they are now living in the shadow of fear.

Paul, who represents Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency, has been caught on tape asking his partymen to kill Marxists and threatened to get their women raped.

"He (Paul) has said that wherever you see CPI-M supporters, kill them. How can we live in peace? People here are very apprehensive and many of them are fleeing the village," a man said Wednesday.

Apprehensive of an attack on them, the women say they have stopped sending their children to school or men from venturing out of their homes.

"Gopinathpur was a peaceful village until he made that speech. We are now constantly living in fear. There can be an attack on us any day. I am afraid of sending my son to school. In fact, we are afraid of venturing out of our homes," said a women.

Similar views were echoed by several other villagers.

Addressing his party workers in Choumaha village, Paul is seen in a tape saying: "If a CPI-M man dares to touch anybody, I will take out my gun and shoot him. I will destroy his entire clan, I warn my opponents... I will make their family pay dearly. I will ask my boys to go there. They will rape them and leave."

Proceeding to Gopinathpur, 10 km from Choumaha, Paul is seen in the video asking women to slit throats of CPI-M activists and exhorting people to kill their rivals and show him.

"Till I am here, don't spare any CPI-M worker. Our men will kill them. I am also asking the women to slit open CPI-M workers' throats. Use your bontis (sharp vegetable-cutting instrument) to slash their throats. Why haven't you done it till now? Don't you know how to use a knife?"

"I will shoot them in front of everyone... Kill two to four people and show me... Kill them with an axe and prove yourself. Then I will see..." Paul is seen saying in a second video which became public Tuesday when he apologised for his earlier comments.

Meanwhile, the opposition Left Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party continued to call for his arrest.

Leader of opposition and CPI-M veteran Surjya Kanta Mishra demanded the government to suo motu initiate criminal proceedings against Paul, while BJP state president Rahul Sinha accused the Mamata Banerjee government of shielding him.

There has been a countrywide outrage over Paul's remarks with all and sundry seeking his arrest and expulsion from parliament.

IANS