State Home Secretary orders inquiry into "stripping" of BUPC member

Nandigram, May 06 (UNI) State Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty today said that he has ordered an independant inquiry into the alleged assault on a Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee(BUPC) member by CPI(M) activists for refusing to join their procession.

He said that this inquiry will be conducted by an independant agency whose operations will not be controlled by the district administration and whose identity he refused to disclose.

''I am shocked and concerned over the incident and have already ordered an agency in Kolkata to inquire into the matter,'' he said, but when journalists asked him about the name of the agency, Mr Chakraborty refused to disclose it saying that it is an independant inquiry being conducted by an agency whose work will also remain outside the control of the distrrict administration.

Eyewitnesses alleged that the 28-year-old woman woman, who was a Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) supporter, was chased by CPI(M) cadres for almost half a kilometre from Keyakhali to Brindaban Chowk yesterday.

However, to protest the assault, she refused a sari offered by a police team, following which, she was again beaten up in front of the police, the eyewitnesses added.

Later, police took the woman in a trekker and admitted her to the Nandigram Hospital, where Dr Susmita Pal, attending on her, confirmed that she had been severely assaulted.

The CPI(M), however, had denied the allegations and the police too said that no one had been beaten up in their presence.

After receiving treatment at the hospital, the woman alleged that CPI(M) cadres had entered their village Keyakhali and fired indiscriminately and hurled bombs at their houses.

She said the men entered her house and forced her husband and eight-year-old son to join a CPI(M) procession.

When she protested, the intruders stripped and assaulted her.

UNI XC LL DB1742