A female journalist working with Rashtriya TV Bangla was abused and threatened by a resident at Kolkata for visiting an area in Kolkata to report on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists launched by the Election Commission in West Bengal along with several other states. The incident took place at New Town in Kolkata, when Tamasree Rudra had visited an area known for presence of large number of illegal immigrants to talk to the residents on the SIR exercise.
During this, a man confronted her and claimed that he has documents older by 100s of years than documents of Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP leaders. When she asked him to show the documents, he got enraged, and launched a verbal assault on her. The man who identified himself as Mintu Mandal also threatened to pour hot water on her, leading to a very heated exchange between the two.
Rashtriya TV Bangla posted a video of the encounter on its YouTube channel, where Tamasree Rudra was seeing asking the residents of the area to show their identification documetns, and asking whether they are locals in the area. Most of the people she talked to asserted that they are residents of India for generations, and have all the documents.
While all other residents talked to her calmly, suddenly one person appears and starts asking with what authority she was asking for documents from people in the area. He also asked what authority she has to enter ‘their area’, and enquire about people’s citizenship. He claimed that his family has documents much older than documents possessed by BJP leaders like Suvendu Adhikari. He claimed that he has property documents dating back to 200 years, and Suvendu Adhikari’s father does not have such old documents.
He accused the journalist of working for BJP, while the journalist asked whether he works for TMC, which he denied. He kept saying he has documents dating back to hundreds of years, she kept asking him to show the documents, which he refused saying she does not have the right to check documents. He asked her to bring authorities to verify the documents, and accused her of being Suvendu Adhikari’s broker.
As the arguments heated more, Mintu Mandal asked the cameraman and the journalist to leave the place. He also threatened to pour hot water on them if they don’t leave. Later several other residents joined the arguments against the female journalist. As Mintu Mandal kept chanting ‘Bhaag BJP Bhaag’, others chased Tamasree Rudra and her cameraman away from the place.
