Miscreants vandalised property, threatened inmates: RKM

Miscreants have vandalised premises of the Ramakrishna Mission in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district and threatened monks and other employees at gunpoint to leave the place, an RKM official said Monday.

The official said that a local land mafia was behind the early Sunday morning incident.

"Around 10 armed youths barged into our ashram at 3 am, went to the first floor and threatened the eight people present there - including senior monks – at gunpoint to leave the premises,” the RKM official told PTI.

They then vandalised the premises, breaking CCTV cameras and locking the main gate before leaving, he said.

The police later broke the locks and rescued the monks and staff who were stranded in the open after the attackers left.

"It was a matter of property dispute and our monks have already lodged a complaint at Bhaktinagar police station against a local tough and some of his associates. We have named him in the complaint,” the RKM official said.

The police have initiated a probe and promised security to them, the official said.

"We have full faith in the police and administration,” he added.

Condemning the attack on Ramakrishna Mission ashram in Jalpaiguri, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused the Trinamool Congress regime of letting loose a reign of terror on monks just to appease vote bank politics.

"It is shameful that the TMC has taken up the onus of hurting the religious faith of Hindus in Bengal. The CM is threatening the Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram Ashram monks,” Modi said while addressing an election rally at Jhargram in the state.

Banerjee, however, denied that she threatened any institution.

Addressing a public meeting in Bankura's Onda on Monday, Banerjee said, "I am not against Ramakrishna Mission. Why should I be against an institution or insult it? I have spoken about one or two persons.”

The chief minister also praised Bharat Sevashram Sangha as an organisation, saying that it works for the people.

BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya alleged this is the worst thing Mamata Banerjee could have done to West Bengal.

“After she threatened Ramakrishna Mission, Bharat Sevashram Sangh and ISKCON from an open stage, criminals with firearms and daggers entered RKM Ashram under Kotwali area in Jalpaiguri and attacked the monks, broke CCTV, brandished firearms, forcefully detained the sadhus and threw them on streets,” he said in a post on X.

This is nothing less than a “Talibani regime", Malviya claimed.

In response, TMC spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen alleged that the BJP leader uploaded the post to incite the people of Bengal.

"Amit Malviya runs the IT cell with those accused in sexual attack on women in BHU, who had earlier used fake videos of riots in northern India passing these as incidents of West Bengal, believes in the politics of religious polarization,” he told PTI.

He was alluding to the arrest of three persons who were arrested on the charge of raping a student inside Banaras Hindu University last year. Those three accused claimed themselves to be the BJP's IT cell members on their Facebook page.