Kolkata, Aug 11 (IANS) West Bengal Leader of the Opposition, Ritabrata Banerjee, on Tuesday approached Bhabani Bhawan (headquarters of West Bengal Police) after receiving continuous death threats on WhatsApp from Bangladesh.
The leader of the rebel but majority faction of Trinamool Congress wants to know who is behind giving him death threats.
Recently, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) member Hamim Mondal and his two aides were arrested from West Bengal.
It was then learned that their target was Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
The militants had tapped his programmes, travel routes and even his house in Kolkata.
The aim was to understand the loopholes in the Chief Minister’s security. Amid all this, the target this time is the Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee.
It was learnt that from May 3 to August 9, Ritabrata received threatening calls several times. Each time the number was from Bangladesh.
Ritabrata was threatened with death over WhatsApp calls.
It is said that he will face the same fate as the free-thinking blogger Abhijit Roy of Bangladesh.
Initially, the Leader of the Opposition did not give much importance to the matter. However, the continuous threatening calls naturally created a situation of panic following which he approached Bhabani Bhawan on Tuesday in this regard.
A formal complaint with the police has been lodged, police sources said.
On February 26, 2015, on his way back from the Amar Ekushey Book Fair near Dhaka University, free-thinking blogger Abhijit Roy was hacked to death. His wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya was also seriously injured. Later, it was proven that members of the banned militant organisation Ansar Al Islam were behind the incident.
Recently, exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin had spoken about Abhijit Roy in Kolkata.
There are speculation that the outfit which was responsible for the murder of Abhijit Roy could be behind Ritabrata Banerjee receiving threatening calls.
However, the police have launched an investigation to find who or which organisation is making the threat calls to Ritabrata Banerjee.
–IANS
sch/khz
