The leaders had gone to Makra village in Birbhum district, about 200 km from the state capital, to show solidarity to the families of the victims. They were allegedly killed by Trinamool Congress supporters on Monday.
Trinamool, the ruling party in the state, has been trying aggressively to regain its lost ground in the state after BJP registered victory for the first time in the state in last Lok Sabha elections.
The state Home department had sent a message in the morning to BJP headquarters in Kolkata to not send the delegation to Makra as as Section 144 has been clamped in the village and adjoining areas. However, Naqvi and others tried to break the cordon and enter into the village as local police arrested them to release after half-an-hour.
“If the state government put half the effort they are putting in arresting us into curbing terrorism, the state of West Bengal would have been in a better condition,” said Naqvi before being taken to a police station in a bus.
“The state government has clamped Section 144 to prevent us from entering the village. If the police allowed four of us to enter, it would not have violated the Section. The government is just trying to prevent the villagers from speaking to us and breaking its own law in the process,” said Sinha.
