Our party office was attacked though the police did intervene. The "Swadhinata" office was housed at Park Lane and we were told that Congressmen were plotting to launch an attack there also. We sent volunteers there as a precautionary measure but fortunately, no attacks took place.

In the meantime, the border skirmishes had turned into full-fledged clashes. The Chinese army reached up to the Bomdila Pass and then almost suddenly decided to draw back. Some leaders of West Bengal owing allegiance to the Dange faction had proposed to us that the editorship of "Swadhinata" be given to Somnath Lahiri instead of the then incumbent, Saroj Mukherjee. Which meant, in other words, that there was a plan to take over the editorial board and run the paper on Congress lines. However, this proposal was rejected by us. Later, taking opportunity of the widescale raids and arrests in which many leaders of "Swadhinata" had been arrested, the Dange loyalists did manage to take over the publication.

The police was keeping a strict vigil on Pramode Dasgupta, Saroj Mukherjee, Niranjan Sengupta, Harekrishna Konar and myself. We were being followed almost everywhere.

I still remember that I was invited to Snehangsu Acharya’s place the evening before I was arrested. Most probably, Pramode Dasgupta was scheduled to come. Dinesh Roy was there. Even as we were having our dinner, we saw a car outside Snehangsu’s residence. While I was leaving, Snehangsu told me that it was likely thatI would be arrested that evening only. At 3 a.m. the next morning, the police came to my residence and said matter of flatly "You are being arrested." I replied, equally plainly, "Go ahead."

There were massive raids throughout the state the next day. Pramode Dasgupta, Muzaffar Ahmed, Krishnapada Ghosh and many others were put behind bars. However, Samar Mukherjee, Benoy Chowdhury and leaders like Naresh Dasgupta evaded arrests on party instructions and carried on work from underground.

The police told us that we would not have to spend too many days in jail because China was in full war-cry. Incidentally, while the war continued for only 14 days, we had to spend a year in jail under totally trumped up allegations. We were released in the December of 1963.

We had been kept at the Presidency Jail. My father died during that time. My wife called up the chief secretary and requested that I be released to take part in the last rites. The government allowed me a day’s parole. It was a very uncomfortable situation with the policemen standing beside even as I talked to my wife and relatives.