Mamata's kin assailant an RSS supporter, say police

The youth who slapped Trinamool Congress MP and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, has been identified by the police as a supporter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—a development that could further increase animosity between the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP in West Bengal.

Senior police officials claimed that Debasish Acharya, a resident of Tamluk in East Midnapore district, was an RSS supporter and an active member of the BJP's student wing—the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The state police, in a report on Acharya’s antecedents, said he had attended an ABVP meeting on January 2.

“Acharya joined the ABVP in 2009 as a polytechnic student in the North 24 Parganas district. After he moved to Durgapur in Burdwan district to pursue a B Tech, he came closer to the RSS and spent considerable time at an ashram of Ramdev at Hardwar in 2014,” said a senior police official.

He added that the police are trying to ascertain whether Acharya was acting on his own when he attacked Banerjee or if it was an organisational decision.

On Sunday,  Acharya was accosted by Trinamool leaders and supporters on stage and beaten severely.

PTI adds: Acharya was booked for attempt to murder.