Bhangar clashes: Video of goon confessing to being hired by Trinamool MLA goes viral

Kolkata, June 17 (IANS) A video showing a professional goon confessing to being hired by a Trinamool Congress MLA to create tension at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas, is doing rounds on social media.

Three persons -- a candidate and an activist of All India Secular Front (AISD) and one local leader of Trinamool Congress --, were killed in the severe clashes at Bhangar last Thursday.

Gobinda Naskar, a resident of Hatgacha area, has been identified as the person making the confession.

In the video, Naskar after being nabbed by All India Secular Front (AISF) supporters, can be seen confessing that he was hired by Saokat Molla, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Bhangar-adjacent Canning (East) Assembly constituency.

A copy of the video is available with IANS, though the authenticity of the same has not been confirmed.

"I belong to the Saokat Molla camp. I was hired at Rs 5,000. I possessed a firearm and bullets. I also openly fired. I was asked to shoot at AISF supporters. After my bullets got exhausted I tried to escape, but got caught," Molla said.

He also confessed that he had come to Bhangar from Hatgacha in a group of around 30. Going viral since Friday evening, the video has created major ripples in the political circles of the state.

Saokat Molla has rubbished the allegations made in the video and claimed that it was doctored and circulated by AISF to malign his image.

Even Naskar took a U-turn from what he confessed in the video just hours after it went viral.

"After I was nabbed by the AISF supporters, the latter forced me to say such things and made a video out of it," Naskar said.

But he did not give any satisfactory answer on his presence at Bhangar on the nomination days as an outsider.