Kolkata: One week before the video of a Trinamool Congress leader beating up a woman in full view of an audience prompted countrywide outrage, a man and a woman were similarly beaten up by the same leader, locals have claimed.
In both cases, the person behind the beatings was Tajimul Haque – whose strongarm tactics in the Chopra area of Uttar Dinajpur district in Bengal have earned him the nickname ‘JCB’, after a bulldozer brand.
Unlike the current case, bolstered by a video that went viral, this one did not invite police action but there is video evidence of brutal beatings. However, like this current case, here too the targets of violence was a man and a woman who had been accused of having had an illicit relationship.
The Wire has seen four video clips showing the couple tied with a rope, paraded, and viciously beaten by Tajimul and his aides. According to the victim’s relatives, the two were held captive at Tajimul’s house for days, during which they were beaten, and forced to pay lakhs as “fine.”
“JCB is the last word here. He can do whatever he wants, and the police will not do anything,” says a close relative of the man, who requested that none of the parties be named for fear of retaliation.
The beating video that surfaced in the media is not an isolated event but rather a regular occurrence in the Lakshmipur area of Chopra, the relative added.
Tajimul, a close aide of Trinamool Congress MLA Hamidul Rahman, routinely organises kangaroo courts for disputes of all kinds, ranging from property issues to extramarital affairs. He also imposes fines – payable to him – and hands out physical punishment.
“My relative was beaten for three days by Tajimul’s men. He was tortured because some believed he had had an affair outside of marriage. They forced him to marry her,” he added.
The relative claimed that the man and the woman were both married, but that the kangaroo court’s “direction” had to be followed.
Tajimul, who presided over the “judgement” allegedly said that the man had to pay Rs 13 lakhs, to be split between Tajimul and the first husband of the woman. When they could not, the beatings began.
In 2023, on the final day of nomination filings for the panchayat election, a Left-Congress rally was allegedly fired upon by TMC supporters, killing one Mansur Ali, alleged to be a Left supporter. Several Congress and Left supporters were also injured. In the FIR filed with the police, Mansur’s mother named Tajimul as the alleged killer. He was arrested but soon got bail, according to a local.
It is a common refrain in Chopra that cases against Tajimul go nowhere. The Wire has seen locals’ letters to police dating back to 2018, requesting them to take action against him.
The Wire has written to the Islampur Police District Superintendent of Police, Dr Joby Thomas K. The piece will be updated when he responds.
