As part of a protest march by the main Opposition party in West Bengal against the ruling TMC in Kolkata on Tuesday, several BJP workers and police personnel were injured, and a police vehicle was set on fire. As a result, the Calcutta High Court intervened.
BJP supporters were allegedly prevented from participating in the party’s “Nabanna Abhiyan” march to the State Secretariat in Howrah following the clashes. The High Court asked the state’s Home Secretary to submit a report by September 19. As a result of the court’s order, no unnecessary arrests or detentions will be made in connection with the rally.
Similarly, the National Commission for Women requested an explanation from the Kolkata Police Commissioner within seven days over a video purportedly showing “Meena Devi Purohit, senior BJP leader, brutally assaulted by men police officers”.A complaint was filed against the officers.
The BJP’s spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya told reporters that 35 workers and leaders were hospitalized due to the clashes. According to him, three of them are in critical condition.
In connection with the violence, Kolkata Joint CP (Crime), Murlidhar Sharma, reported that “90 people were arrested” and that 27 policemen were injured, including two officers. A CCTV recording is being examined to identify the perpetrators of the fire on the police vehicle. He promised that those involved would be arrested soon.
Three protest rallies were blocked from reaching the Secretariat earlier on Tuesday by police barricades. A police kiosk was vandalized after protesters pelted stones and threw glass bottles. After a few hundred people gathered, police used tear gas, water cannons, and a lathi charge to control them.
In spite of this being a scheduled program announced earlier, BJP Leader in State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari told reporters that the police stopped 1.5 lakh BJP workers.
After an altercation, Adhikari was detained by police and arrested by officers near the second Hooghly bridge, along with Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee and former state unit chief Rahul Sinha. The government cannot stop an opposition leader like this,” Adhikari said. Sukanto Majumder, the current state chief of the BJP, was arrested later.
There was a strong condemnation of “such outrageous behavior” by the TMC as it accused BJP workers of “hooliganism”.
After losing the state elections last year, the BJP has launched the “Nabanna Abhiyan,” its first major campaign to revitalize its cadre. Taking advantage of the recent action against top TMC leaders by Central investigative agencies, the protest aims to focus on what the party calls rampant corruption by the TMC.
As Enforced Directorate (ED) officials said they had recovered over Rs 40 crore in cash from premises alleged to be linked to Partha Chatterjee, the BJP push gained pace.
A few eyewitnesses claimed on Tuesday that the areas near the Santragachi railway station in Howrah, Howrah Maidan, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Rabindra Sarani, and the areas leading to the police headquarters in Lalbazar looked like war zones.
According to Adhikari, who took to Facebook Live from the Lalbazar police station in Kolkata, “Myself, Locket Chatterjee, and Rahul Sinha were picked up like minor crimes and thrown into the jail.”.We were pushed and manhandled by police personnel, including ladies who were employed by the police… Arresting us will not halt our march… We will topple this state government by the year 2024.”
A dig at the BJP was made by TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh to reporters. They don’t have any workers. It doesn’t appear that the BJP has a strategy. Those in the crowd are police officers and members of the media. When he was stopped, why did Suvendu Adhikari not sit on a dharna? Rather than getting into a police van loudly, he chose to do so quietly.
There were violent clashes between protesters and the police as police barricades were placed on the route from Santragachi to the State Secretariat. Protesters ransacked a police kiosk in Howrah City, then moved to the service roads and to the land near Santragachi railway station to continue pelting stones.
Despite the deployment of the additional police force, the situation did not collapse until evening, after six hours of impasse.
There were also clashes between police and BJP officials at two rallies from Howrah Maidan and College Street led by Sukanto Majumder and Dilip Ghosh.
The situation was under control by police who wielded batons, lobbed tear gas shells, and fired water cannons in Howrah and Mahatma Gandhi Road. Police used a lathi charge against another group of BJP workers at Lalbazar.
Even senior citizens are being targeted by the police at our rally. Our workers are being beaten up by them. Majumder said before he was arrested that many people were injured.”We have maintained peace. In addition to lathi-charging and using water cannons, police fired tear gas shells. Stones were also thrown at us. Ghosh said, “We aren’t here to fight.”
The police allegedly lathi-charged BJP workers returning from Mahatma Gandhi road after they pelted stones at them. A BJP worker told the media that Meena Devi Purohit, the party’s senior leader, and former Deputy Mayor, was injured by the police action. At this point, eyewitnesses reported that protesters ignited a police vehicle.
TMC tweeted: “Destroying and damaging government property, attacking police personnel, disrupting peace and causing chaos – this is the actions of BJP today that bring shame upon the nation. Such outrageous behavior is strongly condemned! ”.
In a tweet, the BJP purportedly depicted one of its workers being hit by the police and called the forces “slaves” of TMC. Are they brave enough to slap corrupt Trinamool Congress leaders like this? A corrupt political party has now turned the police into its cadre,” the party posted.
