'President Pranab Mukherjee's son assaulted in Tripura'

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) General Secretary and MLA, Subal Bhowmick today alleged that a group of Congress activists had assaulted Abhijit Mukherjee, a Congress MLA from West Bengal and son of President Pranab Mukherjee at Bamutia.

Addressing a press conference here, Bhowmick said, Mukherjee had gone to Kalibazar in Bamutia area on September 6 to inaugurate a library in the name of Tripura's first Chief Minister Sachindra Lal Sinha and on his return, a group of Congress supporters led by Balai Goswami, also a General Secretary of TPCC, stopped Mukherjee and requested him to visit the Congress office on the roadside.

"As soon as he got down from the vehicle, the Congress supporters pulled him by his collar and dragged him inside the Congress office on the roadside and physically assaulted him. I was accompanying Mukherjee but could not resist them because they were more in number", he said.

"All these things had happened before my eyes and I remained as a silent witness of the incident", Bhowmick told the press conference.

He said, "Goswami and his supporters were asking Mukherjee about why he came to Tripura without asking the TPCC president, Sudip Roy Burman."

Bhowmick said he apprised the incident to the AICC President Sonia Gandhi on September 7 and demanded a full fledged inquiry into the incident and an exemplary punishment and immediate expulsion of the erring leaders from the party.

Asked if he demanded resignation of the TPCC President, Bhowmick said, "I demanded inquiry and exemplary punishment according to the inquiry report. But Goswami repeatedly asked why Mukherjee came to Tripura without asking Roy Burman."u00a0

He said he had called this press conference because his conscience drove him to make it public and he was ready to face any eventuality. u00a0