TMC MP claims he received death threats over arrest of party leader

Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress leader and MP Sougata Roy claimed he received a phone call in which the caller threatened to kill him if arrested party leader Jayant Singh was not released soon.

Singh, a TMC leader from the Ariadaha area in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district, is a prime suspect in a mob violence incident that occurred on June 30 and was arrested by the police last week.

Ariadaha comes under the Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency which Roy represents as a four-term MP.

"I received a call from an unknown number. The person on the other end claimed that if I did not ensure the release of Jayant Singh, I would be killed.

"The caller also said that he would kill me if I went to Ariadaha. The threat call came twice, and the caller also abused me. I later contacted the Barrackpore Police Commissioner and requested him to track the number. I have also lodged a police complaint," Roy told PTI on Wednesday.

Singh was arrested in connection with the assault of a college student and his mother on June 30. A video clip showing a group of people beating up the two had gone viral.

The police also initiated a suo motu case against him following the circulation of an old video clip showing a girl being assaulted by a group of people in Ariadaha.

A close associate of Singh was apprehended late on Tuesday night in connection with the incident, making it the third arrest in the case.

Singh, who was arrested in 2023 in another case, and was out on bail with a bond promising no further illegal activities, is now facing additional charges for violating this condition.

When asked about Singh's closeness to the ruling dispensation in the area, Roy said, "After his previous arrest, he stayed away from unlawful activities. It is not about closeness. If the party had received any complaints, we would have looked into them."