Citing Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which is in force in parts of Sandeshkhali, senior police officers first stopped their convoy in the Bhojerhat area on Basanti Highway, which is around 52 km from Sandeshkhali. After the committee members decided to proceed to the trouble-hit area by defying the orders, the police arrested them.
Saikat Ghosh, Deputy Commissioner, Bhangar Division, Kolkata Police, said, “We were requesting them to not cross from here but they were trying to break the police barricade unlawfully. So, we had to arrest them under Preventive Sections. If there is information of a ‘breach of peace’, police can arrest them under preventive sections”.
According to the police, they have been brought to Lalabazar, the headquarters of Kolkata Police.
Before being arrested by the police, Charu Wali Khanna, a member of the fact-finding committee said, “The police should answer why they are trying to detain us… The way atrocities against women have been done, I wonder what the police would have done with them. The police are not citing any reason to stop us, they are just doing what they have been asked to do…”
She added, “We were visiting Sandeshkhali, but they have stopped us. The police have purposely stopped us and are creating problems for the common people. The police are not letting us meet the victims of Sandeshkhali.”
After being stopped by the police, Reddy, accompanied by former IPS officer Raj Pal Singh, former National Commission for Women member Charu Wali Khanna, advocates O P Vyas and Bhavna Bajaj, and senior journalist Sanjeev Nayak, sat on the road to mark their protest.
“This is completely illegal. We have told the police personnel that as law-abiding citizens we will not break the rules. No curfew has been imposed in Sandeshkhali. So, we can go in two groups. At least two of our women members should be allowed to visit the females who had borne the brunt of atrocities of musclemen enjoying political patronage and impunity from police action in all these days till the media unravelled the shocking truth,” said Reddy.
Meanwhile, two Bengal ministers Sujit Bose and Partha Bhowmick visited the Bermajur area in Sandeshkhali and interacted with the villagers. The ministers claimed people were happy in the area. “The BJP keeps making baseless allegations. It does not matter. We are doing our work. We want the voting to take place in peace. People are happy here,” said Bose.
Several women in Sandeshkhali have alleged Trinamool Congress strongman Shahjahan Sheikh and his supporters have grabbed land and sexually assaulted them.
Tension has been rife in Sandeshkhali after officials of the Enforcement Directorate went to search Sheikh’s premises in connection with a ration scam on January 5, and were attacked by a mob of his supporters. Sheikh has been absconding after the incident.