Trinamool Congress suspends three leaders for threatening steel plant officials

Three Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders of of Burdwan-Asansol industrial area have been suspended by the state leadership for allegedly being involved in extortion bid and threatening officials of a steel plant at Jamuria in the district. TMC general secretary Mukul Roy said Alok Das, Chanchal Banerjee and Tapas Chakraborty, all leaders of Burdwan-Asansol industrial area, were suspended.

"Since allegations have been received against them, they were suspended from the party pending enquiry," Roy told PTI in Kolkata. The three leaders were also show-caused earlier in the day.

The party's state leadership had sent a two-member to Jamuria to investigate following the Shyam SEL's complaint to the police against those leaders. TMC working president of Asansol-Durgapur V Sivadasan Dasu and TMC Youth president of Asansol-Durgapur Ashok Rudra visited the plant and talked to various persons including the management of the plant.

Rudra said the three were show-caused and asked to reply to the notice within five days. He said when he talked to the plant management, they told him they were getting full support from the state government.

Shyam SEL Assistant General Manager Sumit Chakraborty said, "We do not have any complaint against the state government. We faced problems with certain individuals and we had complaint against them."
When told that the three accused were suspended, Chakraborty said, "It will send positive signal to industrialists."

In Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee said earlier that allegations of threats to officials of Shyam-SEL's plant by Trinamool activists were nothing but "false propaganda".