Mamata visits residence of Trinamool worker who died in police custody, faces protests

On August 9, 2026, former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid a visit to the residence of a Trinamool Congress worker in Halisahar, North 24 Parganas, where the individual had died in police custody. Ms. Banerjee encountered protests from locals who hurled slogans at her and attempted to attack her vehicle. The Trinamool Congress chairperson claimed that bricks had been thrown at her vehicle by Bharatiya Janata Party supporters, and she blamed the police for the attack.

Accompanied by Trinamool Congress MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Dola Sen, Ms. Banerjee faced further turmoil when Birju Keot, husband of former Trinamool Congress councillor Jenny Sharma Keot, was arrested on Friday. Birju Keot was presented before a court and remanded to five days of police custody, only to be taken from the lock-up to a state-run hospital on Saturday, where he was pronounced dead.

Ms. Banerjee condemned these actions, stating that the family of the deceased was being threatened, even after a custodial death. She accused the police of allowing "lumpens from outside" to attack her vehicle. The Trinamool Congress chairperson vowed to appeal the custodial death to the courts. This was the first time since the West Bengal Assembly polls defeat that the former Chief Minister reached out to a party worker.

Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had also faced an attack on May 30 when he visited Sonarpur to meet the family of a deceased Trinamool Congress worker. In the aftermath of the TMC's loss in the recent Assembly elections, several incidents of arrests of party workers have taken place, and local leaders have been attacked by supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Trinamool Congress leaders have accused the BJP of violence against their party workers following the party's power shift.