Silchar: A self-proclaimed Dalit leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Suranjit Das Choudhary allegedly thrashed a wineshop owner for refusing to give him “free alcohol” in Silchar, Assam.
Following the incident, he was booked on attempt to murder charges for allegedly thrashing the wineshop owner.
Das Choudhary, however, said that alcoholic youths molested a lady in front of the wineshop which angered the locals.
The incident occurred on Saturday night.
The wineshop owner claimed Suranjit Das Choudhary, who is also the president of Kaibarta Samaj Unnayan Parishad, sent one of his companions to collect an expensive bottle of “alcohol for free”.
“The person came to our shop and asked for the expensive bottle but he denied paying for it. They did it in the past too, they took alcohol worth Rs 45,000 but never paid the money. When we denied further free alcohol that day, they attacked us”, said the wineshop owner named Sukanta Kar.
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Kar said that collecting free alcohol has become a regular practice for Suranjit and he threatened to vacate them from that area if the demands are not fulfilled.
“It has become a kind of Gunda-Tax, we have to keep them happy which I didn’t allow,” he said.
However, Suranjit told a different story about the incident.
He said that on Saturday evening, some alcohol consumers misbehaved with a woman in front of the wineshop and they were protesting against it.
“The lady came to me and we went to talk to the wineshop owner because he was allowing youths to consume alcohol in front of the shop. But, instead of cooperating, he used derogatory remarks against our community which sparked anger amongst the locals,” he said.
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Das Choudhary, who is the president of the Kaibarta Samaj Development Committee (an association of local dalit community), said that they have also lodged a complaint against the wineshop owner and demanded an unbiased investigation.
He also denied the allegations of taking away bottles of expensive alcohol without money. “I’ll stop my political activities if they can prove it, I’ll pay 45 lakhs if they can prove that I have consumed free alcohol from them,” he said.
The president of BJP’s Cachar district committee, Bimalendu Roy claimed that Suranjit Das Choudhary is innocent and he was only protesting against some illegal activities happening in front of the wineshop.
“This wineshop was established without following proper legal rules and there is a temple nearby. The alcohol consumers were involved in illegal activities and as a responsible resident, Suranjit protested against it. We have appealed to the local administration to remove the shop from the area as soon as possible,” Roy said.
After the alleged incident, two separate First Information Report (FIR)s were lodged at Silchar Sadar Police Station and police said that they are investigating the matter.
According to the officials, a case under 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 326 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons), 379 (theft), 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Suranjit Das Choudhary, Jayanta Chakraborty, Rahul Paul, Nitai Das, Susata Roy, Pijush Paul, Sibu Das.
Family members of the wineshop owner shared some CCTV footage where the accused were seen dragging and thrashing the Mr Kar.
Last year, Suranjit Das Choudhary along with his 10 companions were offloaded from an aircraft at Silchar’s Kumbirgram airport after they allegedly misbehaved with an air hostess while boarding on Kolkata-bound aircraft.
According to the officials of Kumbirgram Airport, Choudhary was talking over a mobile phone during takeoff, breaking the protocol and when the crew members asked him to stop using his mobile, he misbehaved.
“At one point he started threatening the air hostess and said that he is capable of buying her along with the aircraft,” an official said on September 6, last year.