Priests were reportedly attacked outside the ancestral home of former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb in Udaipur in the Gomati district in Tripura late Tuesday night. According to ANI, the incident took place when a group of priests arrived at Deb's residence in Rajdhanagar in the Jamjuri area of Udaipur to perform a Yajna on the annual Shradh ceremony of Deb's father on Wednesday.

The miscreants allegedly attacked the priests and vandalised their vehicles.

Jitendra Kaushik, whose vehicle was damaged, said he had come to visit Maa Tripura Sundari temple. "I came on instructions of our Gurudev ji to overlook the preparations of the Yagna to be performed on Wednesday. Suddenly a mob came. They attacked me and vandalised my vehicle."

"As I got out of the car and tried to escape, they (miscreants) started pelting stones. When I started screaming, they said that either CPI(M) will come to power or nobody else will come to power," ANI quoted Kaushik as saying

Tripura | We came here to worship Mata Sundari. While I was here, a large number of people came towards our car & attacked me: J Kaushik, SC lawyer & victim, on miscreants' attack at Tripura ex-CM Biplab Deb's ancestral home in Jamjuri pic.twitter.com/svd4enJMJV

— ANI (@ANI) January 3, 2023

Following the incident, locals held a protest and vandalised shops, believed to be of the attackers — prompting police to beef up security in the area.

Sub Divisional Police Officer Nirupam Debbarma and Additional Superintendent of Police Debanjana Roy also rushed to the spot to tackle the situation.

Elections in Tripura are likely to be held in February-March this year. Currently, there's a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government ruling in the state and Manik Saha is the chief minister.

First Published:Jan 4, 2023 11:56 AM IST