Kolkata: Arrested TMC vice-president Jayprakash Majumdar was pelted with eggs by angry residents on Friday when police took him to a Salt Lake apartment near the city for a search in connection with a case alleging illegal occupation of property and intimidation of its owner.
Police personnel accompanying Majumdar had to protect him and rush him inside the residence as residents gathered outside and pelted eggs while shouting slogans against him.
Majumdar was arrested on Wednesday from the Bidhannagar North Police Station based on a complaint alleging that he had occupied the flat for years and threatened the landlord when asked to vacate the premises or pay the rent.
The development came a month after the BJP defeated the TMC and came to power West Bengal.
According to police sources, the investigators took the manager arrested as part of the investigation to his apartment on Friday.
As soon as he got out of the police vehicle, a crowd surrounded him and started protesting, accusing him of illegal possession of property.
Several eggs were thrown at him before police escorted him into the building.
The property owner alleged that Majumdar had rented the flat in Salt Lake in 2014 but continued to occupy it despite repeated demands to vacate.
The complainant also alleged that attempts to collect rent or claim possession of the property were met with threats and intimidation.
Tension flared in the area on Wednesday before Majumdar’s arrest, when locals staged a protest against him. Witnesses said residents surrounded the leader, raised slogans of “chor, chor” (thief, thief) and demanded that he vacate the property.
Police later intervened and took him to the police station before formally arresting him.
Friday’s incident was not the first time Majumdar has faced public hostility.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign, when he was a BJP candidate from Karimpur, a video showing him being kicked and pushed in a swampy field during a political confrontation went viral on social media.
The BJP was then accused TMC workers behind the attack. Majumdar later left the saffron party and joined the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit in 2021.
Police said investigations into claims related to the property are ongoing.
