Mahua Moitra moves HC over egg attack, alleges police inaction; court denies urgent hearing

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra on Monday approached the Calcutta High Court, accusing Nadia district police of failing to arrest those responsible for the alleged egg attack on her in West Bengal’s Tehatta recently.

Moitra, the Mamata faction’s MP from the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency, moved the court after eggs were allegedly thrown at her while she was returning from a meeting in Tehatta, Nadia district.

Although the single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya admitted her petition, it declined her plea for an expedited hearing. Justice Bhattacharya directed that the matter be heard according to the scheduled cause list.

The alleged egg attack occurred last week and was allegedly carried out by BJP workers in Tehatta. Moitra had visited Tehatta to attend a meeting there, and the egg attack on her was reportedly launched while she was returning from the party event.

She later shared videos of the incident on social media and alleged that BJP office-bearers had surrounded the venue and targeted her convoy as she left the meeting.

Referring to a recent observation by Supreme Court judge Justice Dipankar Datta that politicians should not be overly concerned about egg attacks when freedom fighters had faced bullets, she said she had confronted the situation in the same spirit.

Moitra said that on Wednesday she was officially both an MP in independent India and also a freedom fighter. “BJP office bearers (NOT public) surrounded my meeting and pelted eggs as I left. Thank you, MiLord, for upholding our Constitutional protections,” the Krishnanagar MP said.

However, the BJP legislator from Tehatta, Subrata Kobiraj, denied any involvement of party workers behind the incident and claimed the egg attack was a fallout of factionalism within Trinamool Congress in Nadia district.

“This was the result of factional conflict within Trinamool Congress. Here, one group is backing Moitra, while another is against her. Trinamool Congress in Nadia is now divided into two groups, and an anti-Moitra group attacked her. BJP had nothing to do with it,” said Kobiraj.

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