State pulls out all stops to foil today’s Nabanna march, cops fear violence
Times of India | 27 August 2024
Kolkata: Bengal govt on Monday pulled out all stops to foil Tuesday's ‘Chhatra Samaj' march to Nabanna, calling it "illegal" and saying it had intelligence inputs that the march was backed by "vested interests using miscreants to foment trouble".
Police received applications from Paschimbanga Chhatra Samaj and Sangrami Joutha Mancha on Monday afternoon but rejected them because of the UGC-NET examinations on Tuesday and BNSS 163 was in place around Nabanna (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita clause 163, formerly Section 144).The organisers were told to choose another day and "a non-restricted venue" where protests could be allowed.
The police statements — issued in two media briefings on Monday — came after two videos surfaced in which some Ghatal-based BJP functionaries were heard saying "bodies must fall" during Tuesday's protests. "The stir cannot gain any momentum without any (dead) body," one of the speakers is heard saying in the videos shared by Trinamool and its MPs and ministers on their X handles. Ghatal cops arrested three local BJP functionaries seen in the videos: Kharar Municipality councillor Bablu Ganguly, mandal president Biplab Mal and local BJP worker Soumen Chatterjee.
ADG (law and order) Manoj Kumar Verma requested the public "not to fall in the trap of anti-social elements" and "avoid being part of an illegal programme". Additional director-general of police (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar added that cops had video footage showing a Chhatra Samaj functionary going to a five-star hotel at 11.25am on Sunday to meet a senior politician. "We know who he met. We are collecting (more) information. All evidence will be produced in court," Sarkar said, adding: "Every individual has the right to move freely but it is a strange coincidence that he met a politician on Sunday at a hotel after announcing the agitation programme."
Cops got the two applications for the Nabanna march only on Monday afternoon, he said, long after the organisers had started calling for participation on social media.
Intelligence inputs with cops indicated that women and students would be positioned at the front of the rallies but the rear would comprise "anti-social elements" who would instigate violence, officials said. "They plan to use the common masses' emotion to create unrest. The actual masterminds may not be present on the ground," Sarkar said.
"It is an illegal gathering in a restricted zone. The organisers also did not give adequate information in accordance with the Calcutta High Court's orders. UGC-NET examinations are there and a big gathering may create problems for examinees. We have definite inputs that miscreants will try create anarchy," he added.
Officials said they were not taking any chance with Nabanna security or law-and-order on the streets. The Nabanna-Mandirtala premise will have a 2,100-person multi-layer security, with the two final layers comprising Rapid Action Force, Eastern Frontier Rifles and combat force personnel. More than 4,500 personnel will be on the streets in Kolkata and Howrah. Esplanade and Hastings may see the maximum deployment in Kolkata; Kona Expressway, Foreshore Road, Howrah Maidan and Santragachhi may see the maximum deployment in Howrah.