North 24 Parganas district council chairperson Narayan Goswami has sought police protection after alleged attackers vandalised his office and scattered official documents at the council premises in Barasat, West Bengal. Goswami also alleged that he had been receiving death threats for the past two to three months and was attacked earlier this month.
In a letter to the superintendent of Barasat Police district, Goswami requested an investigation into the incidents and security for himself. The letter was sent after a group of around 20 to 25 people allegedly entered his office on Monday, October 12, when he was not present, and damaged property and documents kept in a cupboard.
According to Goswami’s account, the earlier attack took place on October 9 within the district council office complex. Six or seven masked people allegedly threw stones and eggs at his car. He said the threats continued after the office vandalism and that he received a phone call threatening to kill him.
Goswami, a former Trinamool Congress legislator, said the alleged incidents had created an atmosphere of fear at the government office. “If there is no healthy environment in the office, employees will not be able to work,” he said, according to the report. He added that the damaged property belonged to the district council and was therefore public property, not his personal property.
The chairperson said the unidentified persons could have approached him directly if they had a grievance. He also appealed for action over the alleged damage to government documents and property, saying that such incidents were harming Barasat’s public environment and culture.
The report did not identify any arrests or specify whether a formal case had been registered by the police by the time of publication. It also did not include a response from the Barasat Police district or an independent confirmation of the alleged attack, threats or property damage.
The incident has also triggered a political dispute. The Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that the attack was linked to internal conflict within the Trinamool Congress. BJP leaders claimed that Goswami may have been in contact with a Trinamool faction associated with Ritabrata Banerjee and that this had angered the party’s leadership in Kalighat. That allegation was not independently established in the supplied report.
The episode places the functioning and security of a local government office at the centre of the dispute. District councils handle public administration and local development responsibilities, making the protection of their premises, records and employees an institutional concern beyond the safety of an individual office-holder. The next steps will depend on the police investigation and the authorities’ response to Goswami’s request for protection.
