Urban development minister, Ashok Bhattacharya was traveling by Darjeeling mail from provincial capital Calcutta to Siliguri, his home town, on 5th June’08 when the train was stranded at Kishanganj station due to strikers squatting on the railway track, as the ruling party called a general strike to protest against petroleum price hike by Indian government.
The communist ruled provincial minister was not allowed to disembark and travel by road by the irritated passengers of the train and had to remain confined to train compartment for full 8 hours. One of the passengers Dilip Singh pointed out that they wanted the minister to understand how does it feel to get stranded for long hours because of such meaningless strike. The minister however complained that Dilip was threatening, abusive and kept yelling and sneaking into my compartment. Dilip was later charged with unlawful assembly, wrongful confinement and misbehavior on a complaint lodged by the minister.
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