RSS sends legal notice to TMC over comments on Islampur

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has sent a legal notice to Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee for "defaming" the organisation in the death of two students in a clash in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district, party sources said Thursday.

The legal notice to Chatterjee, who is also the state education minister, is dated October 1. The TMC leadership had claimed that it was RSS-BJP that had hatched a conspiracy to create disturbances in the state.

"The TMC has made baseless, defamatory and motivated allegations against our organisation. We have sent a legal notice to the TMC. They have to either apologise for their comments or prove whatever they had said about the RSS -- blaming us for the incident -- is true," spokesperson Jishnu Basu told PTI.

"If the TMC is so keen on bringing out the truth in the incident then it should hand over the investigation to the CBI," Basu added.

Asked about the notice, Chatterjee said he was yet to receive it and would comment after he gets it.

A college student, Tapas Burman, and an ITI student, Rajesh Sarkar, died when protesters clashed with the police on September 20 over the recruitment of Urdu and Sanskrit teachers at Daribhita High School in Islampur, police had said.

The deceased's family members, villagers and the BJP had alleged that the students were killed in police firing, and demanded an inquiry by the central investigating agency into the incident.

The charge was denied by the police and the state administration, which handed over the investigation to the CID.