Trinamool Congress chairperson and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of disrupting their protest over the rape and murder of a minor girl in Baruipur.
Banerjee claimed that the police had failed to discharge their duties impartially, and alleged that the cops had become “an arm of the BJP organisation”, PTI news agency reported. The BJP did not immediately respond to Banerjee's allegations.
Addressing a gathering at Hazra Crossing in south Kolkata after the protest march ended, Banerjee claimed that supporters of the BJP had obstructed the rally and assaulted TMC workers at several places along the route. Workers of the BJP and the TMC youth wing had clashed during the protest march, which started from Ballygunge Phari in southern Kolkata, following which police personnel used baton charge to control the situation. The rally was allegedly obstructed by BJP workers, who also raised “thief” slogans and tried to set up human barricades along the protest march route, according to PTI.
Banerjee on Wednesday also alleged that she was being kept under constant surveillance. “I am being kept under police watch as if I am under house arrest,” she said.
‘High court allowed our rally, goons stopped it’
After the protest march, Banerjee accused the BJP of “undermining” the high court's order. “The high court allowed our rally, but BJP goons stopped it. How can the police undermine the court's order allowing the rally? BJP goons beat up our party workers. Is this democracy?” PTI cited Banerjee as saying. Banerjee further claimed that the police “cannot provide protection to common people” and said they were being “used to sabotage” the protest rally.
The Calcutta high court had on Tuesday allowed the Banerjee-led youth wing rally, setting aside a police decision to disallow it. Justice Saugata Bhattacharya, however, directed changes in the original route of the rally, saying it would now start from Ballygunge Phari, move along Hazra Road and end at Hazra four-point intersection, not Lansdowne Market. The court further told TMC to hold the rally between 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm in order to avoid rush hour traffic.
The petition submitted by the TMC before the court had alleged that the Kolkata Police denied permission for the rally on Monday citing inconvenience to the people and the presence of hospitals and schools in the route of the protest march. Arguing for the TMC, senior lawyer and Lok Sabha member Kalyan Banerjee submitted that a government could not dictate when a party should hold a rally.
(With inputs from Tanmay Chatterjee)