More than 24 hours after armed soldiers attacked a police station in Kolkata to "rescue" two of their officers arrested on molestation charges, the stand-off between the state government and the Army continued on the issue.
While the government was firm on proving that soldiers vandalized the Park Street police station, the defence ministry insisted the whole case was based on heresay.
Giving an indication of the stand-off, Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb said: "The police did not go for a confrontation with the rampaging Armymen to avoid bloodshed. We have sought cooperation from the ministry of defence to investigate the matter."
The case had been handed over to the Anti-Rowdy Section of the Kolkata police's detective department. "Since we want to wrap up the case at the earliest at our end, the detective department has been asked to investigate it, Deputy Commissioner, South, Ajoy Kumar said.
According to sources, after the probe, the police would inform the Commanding Officer of 3 Madras Regiment, to which the errant jawans belong, demanding custody of the guilty officers and jawans.
"After they are handed over to us, we will ask the Army to take necessary action against them as per law," city police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee said.
The ministry, however, had a different take. It wanted to know why the police did not record the statement of the woman, who had complained of harassment by the Army officers.
Wing Commander RK Das, spokesman of the defence ministry in Kolkata, claimed there were several unanswered questions. "The first is the whereabouts of the woman on whose statement the hotel authorities acted and forced the two Army officers to leave the hotel. Moreover, the two officers should not have been put behind bars after their identity was established," he said.
