Woman, Man Flogged In Bengal: Why Is Accused Tajimul Called ‘JCB’? Was This His First 'Street Justice' Case?

Joseph Cyril Bamford, the British businessman who founded J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited or the JCB in 1945, must be turning in his grave with the discussion around a brand name he founded nearly a century ago. For, it is also the alias of Tajimul Islam, who was arrested on Monday, after an alleged video of him whipping a woman and a man surfaced on social media.

The video of the incident, posted by CPIM West Bengal Chief on X, has been watched 1.8 million times and widely shared even by his political rivals. The incident took place in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur’s Dighalgaon village in Lakhipur gram panchayat, where a ‘Salishi Sabha’ — a Bengali term for a gathering to address disputes — turned into a virtual Kangaroo Court presided over by Tajimul.

At the meet, it was decided that the duo, alleged to be in an ‘illicit’ relationship, should be thrashed.

WHY ‘JCB’?

JCB, a heavy construction equipment manufacturer, is a major player in the Indian backhoe loader or the bulldozer market. It had a market share of 78% in 2022. In many parts of India, and even Bengal, the two terms — bulldozer and JCB — are used interchangeably.

With the Modi government’s rising expenditure on infrastructure, the construction equipment industry has been witnessing a surge in demand for excavators, which led to a 4x growth in seven-eight years. It simply meant more visibility of such heavy machines which translated into JCB becoming a widely seen brand.

Tajimul earned this name for acting like a JCB, by bulldozing his way, much before the viral video. The people of the area recount many tales that hardly made it to vernacular or national headlines.

Soon after his arrest, more old videos start to tumble out showing the alleged involvement of JCB of Bengal. In one video, JCB seemed to be purportedly dragging a young duo while tying them with ropes in the darkness of night. In another video, a man is seen to be beaten up by a man wearing a ‘lungi’ who is alleged to be JCB. News18 hasn’t independently verified the authenticity of these videos.

But it is claimed that in all these cases, he was “delivering justice” — the JCB style.

JCB is not alone, say opposition leaders in Bengal, citing examples of Shahjahan Sheikh’s dominance in the Sandeshkhali area to Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Anubrata Mandal, often known as ‘the last word’ of Birbhum district, but currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. They all capitalise on people’s fear, with many even calling the malaise of ‘dadagiri’ as an inheritance from the left front regime.

HIS POLITICAL CONNECTIONS

The video has sparked widespread anger with BJP President JP Nadda calling it “horrific”, while state President Sukanta Majumdar on Tuesday calling it “medieval”.

But could Tajimul become JCB without political patronage?

Md Salim has accused JCB of being the “main accused” in the murder of Mansur Alam. Salim was referring to a 2023 incident of pre-panchayat poll violence where Alam sustained fatal gunshot injuries while he was on his way to file nomination papers for the panchayat polls in North Dinajpur’s Chopra area. Mansoor later died in a nursing home. The TMC won all seats uncontested in all three tiers of the panchayat across the block.

The Islampur Police on Monday took to X to claim, “Efforts are being made from certain quarters to spread misinformation about an incident in Chopra PS under Islampur PD. The fact is police has promptly identified and arrested one person who had publicly assaulted a lady.” However, it didn’t elaborate on the kind of “misinformation” and the unnamed “one person” is Tajimul Islam alias JCB.

Majumder rubbished this arrest saying, “What’s the point of this arrest? He is close to Hamidul. Hamidul is indirectly supporting him. They should arrest Hamidul.” The BJP leader was referring to TMC MLA Hamidul Rahman who seemingly justified kangaroo courts while indulging in victim shaming. Rahman asked, “Has the lady complained? So why are you (reporters) going after it incessantly. The lady indulged in anti-social activities, without her husband”.

The TMC MLA accepted the aggressive beating was “a wee bit wrong”, but went on to defend saying it wasn’t “forced”.

Many pointed to the confident body language of JCB when he entered the police station after being arrested — an uncanny resemblance to that of Sheikh when he was first arrested after being on the run.