The price of a slap in Mamata's Bengal: Attacker critical, charged with attempt to murder

The condition of the youth, who had slapped West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee at a rally on Sunday, was stated to be critical after he suffered multiple head injuries. Attending doctors at the Tamluk Hospital, where he was admitted after being thrashed by Trinamool Congress workers, said the condition of Debashis Acharya was ‘critical’. [caption id=“attachment_2030863” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Acharya (left) has been charged with attempt to murder.[/caption] The doctors said that Acharya, who has deep wounds in his head at three places and in other parts of the body was slipping in and out of consciousness. Acharya was beaten up by Trinamool Congress partymen after he slapped Banerjee, who is also the president of the Trinamool Youth Congress, at a rally at Chandipur in East Midnapore district on Sunday. The youth, wearing a cap, mounted the stage from where Banerjee, an MP, was addressing the gathering. On the pretext of clicking photos on his cellphone, the man suddenly lunged towards Banerjee and slapped him, catching him off-guard, police officials said. The man has been identified as Debasish Acharya. He is a 25-year-old engineering student at a college in Durgapur.  Kolkata police have said that the youth has RSS affiliations. While being taken to hospital after being thrashed by TMC workers yesterday, he is believed to have said. “I am khudiram’s spirit. I will be reborn. Goodbye Indians,” reported The Telegraph. Debasish’s father told Telgraph that he had not heard from his son since Diwali and blamed ‘bad company’ for his behaviour. “He is good in studies but has a whimsical nature. When he came home during Diwali, he told us that he wanted to leave studies and go to Haridwar. He left home soon after and since then we have not heard from him,” he was quoted as saying. The family members of Acharya were unavailable at their house in Tamluk when visiting newsmen found it bolted from outside. Meanwhile, two persons, who were reportedly seen with Acharya at the meeting at Chandipur before he assaulted Banerjee, were detained for interrogation today, a top district police officer said. They were identified as Tamal and Pallab from Tamluk and Contai respectively, the officer said. A third person, who was also accompanying the three at the meeting, as stated by eyewitnesses, was also picked up for questioning, but later allowed to leave. With inputs from Agencies