Ilambazar (West Bengal): Rigging of booths in Belwa primary school was reported under the Illambazar police station area during the West Bengal Panchayat polls in Birbhum on Saturday. ETV Bharat journalist Avishek Dutta Roy and another journo Indrajit Rooge were severely beaten up by miscreants when they tried to capture their wrongdoings on their mobile phones.
The miscreants broke their spectacles, tore off their clothes and attempted to snatch their mobile phones. Later, the scribes were beaten up with bamboo sticks. There were only two female police personnel without firearms deputed at the pooling booths. There were no Central Forces in the vicinity. Some miscreants were allegedly involved in rigging at booth numbers 90 and 91 in Birbhum's Illambazar without any objections or fear of the law. So, when these two scribes began clicking photos of their misdeeds, the miscreants pounced on them and started beating them mercilessly. The goons punched them in their face, tore off their clothes and broke the spectacles of the ETV Bharat journalist.
Somehow, the journos ran away from the spot to save their lives. Incidentally, Trinamool Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal was imprisoned in Tihar Jail in connection with cattle smuggling as well as a money laundering case. The panchayat elections were held in Birbhum in his absence. Bolpur MLA and Minister Chandranath Singh's area Illambazar was also not left out of the goons' rampage. More than 100 miscreants blocked the movement of journalists in the area with bamboo sticks in their hands. The police remained mute spectators to the incident. Women presiding officers and women constables were finding themselves helpless in front of the rampaging goons.
