Trinamool leader held for brandishing firearm

Kolkata : A Trinamool Congress district leader, accused of threatening officials in a private hospital in West Bengal’s Birbhum district with a firearm, was Monday arrested and remanded to police custody, police said.

The incident came to light after the closed circuit television footage of the private hospital – which was aired on television channels – showed Ashish Dey beating up and brandishing a firearm to threaten the hospital officials at Suri.

Dey surrendered at the Suri police station Monday and later a court remanded him to police custody for five days, police said.

Dey, however, claimed he was framed. “It’s a cooked up case. The CCTV footage has been tampered with.”

Trinamool MP from Birbhum Satabdi Roy said Dey had been expelled from the party earlier.

But local television channels showed him on stage alongside former railway minister Mukul Roy and current state Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee at separate programmes.