The home office of Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan’s Chowdhury’s official residence on central Delhi’s Humayun Road was vandalised on Tuesday evening by unidentified men when he was still in Parliament, an aide to the MP said.
Chowdhury has been a vocal critic of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, and also attempted to corner the government over last week’s communal clashes in north-east Delhi. One of the relatives of the Berhampore member of Parliament (MP) was injured in the attack, the aide said. According to eyewitnesses, four men barged into his official residence around 5.30 p.m. and demanded to meet Chowdhury, who was still in Parliament. His staff told the men to leave their contact numbers, but that reportedly infuriated them and they became abusive and started vandalising the office.
The attackers also threatened Chowdhury with dire consequences before leaving. “They vandalised the office and destroyed many files and important papers. One of the files of the Public Accounts Committee [PAC] was also destroyed,” said Pradipto Rajpandit, Chowdhury’s private secretary. Chowdhury, who has been representing the Berhampore Lok Sabha constituency since 1999, is the chairman of the PAC. Deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said the incident took place at around 5.30 pm. “A complaint has been received from the MP’s private secretary,Pradipto Rajpandit. We are enquiring into the matter,” said the officer.
The identity of the vandals was yet to be ascertained. An FIR was lodged with the Tughlaq Road police station and a probe initiated. The incident comes amid the Congress taking on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the CAA, the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Delhi riots.
The Congress leader didn’t comment on the violence at his official residence.
