Tripura police probing threats to TMC leader-turned-BJP member

Agartala, March 24 (IANS) Thed Tripura Police on Friday began investigating threat calls to former minister and veteran TMC leader Ratan Chakraborty, who joined the BJP on Thursday.

"Two youths, reportedly Trinamool Congress (TMC) activists, have made two successive calls from their mobiles to Ratan Chakraborty, threatening him with dire consequences. We are now probing the incident," a police official said.

The official said: "Chakraborty filed a complaint with the police about the threat. As this is a cognizable offence, we have sought permission from the judicial magistrate to arrest the accused."

Chakraborty told reporters that if the local police do not take action against the accused, he would ask the Director General of Police to take action.

Chakraborty, who was Trinamool's Tripura unit's coordination committee chairman, on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party along with 15 other state committee members in the presence of Assam BJP leader and Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain.

Before he joined the Trinamool Congress, Chakraborty was a former minister of the Congress-led government in Tripura (1988-93).

Chakraborty joined the BJP about a fortnight after former state Trinamool chief Surajit Datta walked over to the saffron party on March 10.

State BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb and the party's observer (Pravari) Sunil Deodhar told reporters after receiving Chakraborty on Thursday that more leaders and workers from various parties would soon join the party.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)