RAF rained teargas, mob hit back with bricks & stones
Times of India | 16 August 2024
KOLKATA: The vandalism at RG Kar hospital spilled over outside its premises. Police vehicles and CCTV cameras were damaged as the mob targeted cops at RG Kar outpost, injuring several of them.
The arrival of police reinforcements seemed to make no difference, with the vandals taking them on, eyewitnesses said. It took an RAF contingent to push the mob back with tear gas and batons amid a retaliatory shower of bricks and stones.
One group was spotted sprinting down the side of the canal along RG Kar to escape being caught.
City police commissioner Vineet Goyal, who had arrived by then, blamed the spread of "misinformation" through various media for the violence. "DCP North was seriously injured while trying to protect the protesters. He has lost consciousness. What happened is due to misinformation. Kolkata Police is concerned about this issue," he said.
Sources said most of the vandals seen in pictures of the violence were residents of north Kolkata's Belgachhia slum, known locally as Belbasti. Some youth from the neighbourhood near Ratan Babu's Ghat on the Hooghly riverbank were also involved in the rampage, they said.
Belbasti, a one-sq km span under Kolkata Municipal Corporation's Ward 3, has a Trinamool councillor. TMC removed Thursday former Rajya Sabha MP Shantanu Sen, whose wife is a councillor of Ward 5, as the party's spokesperson. It clarified that the step was taken because of Sen's "comments out of turn" rather than anything to do with the vandalism at RG Kar, which is part of the ward his wife represents.
At the hospital, a doctor said, "We had planned an all-women march to Shyambazar as part of the 'Reclaim the Night' protest. Suddenly, a large crowd gathered outside, and the police couldn't stop them. They broke in, and we had to run for our lives. They attacked everyone they saw, including patients and doctors, causing serious injuries."
A security guard at the hospital said there were "500 to 1,000 people" in the mob.
CM Mamata Banerjee said the vandals were "outsiders" allegedly sent by BJP and the Left. "It's a Ram and Baam (BJP and Left) conspiracy. They have conducted this rampage. I have seen videos - those with white flags are DYFI, and those carrying national flags are BJP," she said.
CBI's special crime branch in Kolkata summoned five doctors and hospital staff for questioning in connection with the doctor's rape-and-murder case.