A confrontation broke out at Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s office on Camac Street on Thursday after Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials, accompanied by police, arrived to remove a billboard allegedly installed without permission.
Banerjee and some TMC leaders blocked the path of the police and KMC officials as they tried to move through the human barricade. The jostling continued for around one hour.
Banerjee, who streamed the entire incident live on Facebook, alleged that the order to remove the billboard, which Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials brought to him, lacked a memo number and a photograph of the billboard, even though the order mentioned it as an accompanying document.
“The police acted beyond its jurisdiction. They forcefully entered my office although the billboard is placed on the roof. Our MP Derek O’Brien and several members of my office staff, including women, were injured. We will move the Calcutta High Court tomorrow,” Banerjee said on Facebook Live at 5.57 pm when KMC workers were removing the billboard.
{{/usCountry}}“The police acted beyond its jurisdiction. They forcefully entered my office although the billboard is placed on the roof. Our MP Derek O’Brien and several members of my office staff, including women, were injured. We will move the Calcutta High Court tomorrow,” Banerjee said on Facebook Live at 5.57 pm when KMC workers were removing the billboard.
{{/usCountry}}“The police have become the Bharatiya Janata Party’s slave. There are 400 BJP billboards on Camac Street. They will not remove even one,” Banerjee said.
An officer from the Park Street police station said on condition of anonymity that TMC workers guarding the building’s entry point assaulted several policemen.
“If you watch the videos then you will see several policemen being assaulted. Senior IPS officers have rushed to the spot,” he said.
Dismissing Banerjee’s allegation, agricultural marketing minister Dilip Ghosh said, “When the police did not do their duty, they found the police to be very good. Now that the police are doing their duty, Abhishek Banerjee finds them biased.”