Udayan Guha faces egg-wrath of protesters, wear bike helmet to save himself

Unprecedented chaotic scenes unfolded outside the Dinhata police station in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district on Thursday as a highly agitated crowd targeted arrested former North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha. The senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, who was being escorted out by a joint team of state police and central paramilitary forces, was bombarded with a barrage of rotten eggs and shoes by an angry mob. Anticipating public anger, police personnel had preemptively placed a heavy motorcycle helmet on the former minister's head to shield him from physical projectiles and moved a specialized prison transport van directly up to the facility’s barricaded main gates.

The security infrastructure proved barely adequate as public fury erupted the moment the transport vehicle attempted to exit the barricaded compound. Protesters swarmed the prison van, attempting to block its path while continuously hurling footwear and eggs at the vehicle's windows. The situation escalated rapidly, forcing local law enforcement to call in additional central reinforcement units to physically push back the aggressive crowd and restore order. Under a heavy security blanket, Guha was initially transported to a local state-run health center for mandatory medical screening before being safely produced before the regional district court.

Guha's dramatic transit follows his high-profile arrest by the Cooch Behar District Police on Wednesday from an apartment complex in Kolkata's Phoolbagan area, where he had been residing since losing the Dinhata legislative seat to the BJP in the 2026 Assembly elections. The senior TMC politician has been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating, criminal breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy. The charges stem from formal complaints alleging that he systematically siphoned off crores of rupees in "cut money" from the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana since 2016 and allegedly extorted massive funds from local traders and government employees under the false pretext of constructing a hospital childcare unit.