Hospital owner threatened by gun-wielding Mamata Banerjee's TMC leader

Kolkata The factional feud in the Trinamool Congress’s Birbhum unit spilled onto the corridors of a hospital on Saturday night with the party’s former district secretary Asish Dey and his supporters allegedly threatening the owner of a private nursing home at Suri with a revolver and asking him not to hire Dr Debasish Debangshi, the secretary of TMC-backed district doctors’ association.

Jaiprakash Khaitan, the owner of the nursing home, said that Dey had threatened several people earlier, and after Debangshi was selected for the post of secretary of the TMC-backed association, the rivalry between the duo escalated.

A complaint was lodged with the police on Sunday afternoon. SP (Birbhum) Murlidhar said the police were investigating the matter.

Dey was elected as district secretary of the TMC in 2008. Months later, the party dismissed him from the post following reports of his alleged hooliganism. Despite repeated attempts, Dey could not be contacted.

TMC MP from Birbhum Satabdi Roy admitted factionalism in the district unit. She described Dey as a criminal and accused him of “trying to hatch conspiracy” against the other faction, led by MLA Swapan Ghosh. “We have intimated party chief and stern action will be taken against Dey,” she said.