“She (Ganguly) was demanding the release of five persons arrested for manhandling the police on Wednesday,” Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma said.

“In the tragic incident in which one student died in an accident yesterday (Wednesday). There was some law and order issue and five people have been arrested and Rupa Ganguly came with a demand to release the people. We have seen the various footages, mob was hackling and manhandled police personnel who were on official duty and that’s why they were arrested….She tried to hamper the normal working of the police, so, specific case was registered against her and then she was detained and forwarded to the court,” Verma further said.

Mondal was among the BJP supporters arrested on Wednesday evening, when they were protesting against the death of a Class 9 student, who died after being hit by a payloader that was being used by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation staff for road repair work.

A senior police officer confirmed that the boy was knocked down by the excavator and that the driver was arrested on Thursday.

“I didn’t raise my voice even once, I was sitting silent. The area has so many CCTV cameras,  not even once we did anything wrong. Still they thought they should arrest me? As a citizen I can always sit and protest. I was only requesting them, with folded hands that they should arrest the culprits who killed the minor,” Ganguly said.

Around 10 am, the police told Ganguly, the former Rajya Sabha MP and actor, that she was being arrested and took her to Lalbazar.

Speaking from the van she was taken in, accompanied by women officers, the former Rajya Sabha MP alleged that her bag was left at Bansdroni police station and that she was not permitted to go to the washroom.

The police, however, did not immediately react to Ganguly’s allegations.

West Bengal BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Shamik Bhattacharya said, “She protested against the Bansdroni incident where a student was killed by a JCB (bulldozer)… but the Trinamool government cannot tolerate criticism. That is why Roopa Ganguly was arrested.”

On Wednesday, protests erupted on the streets, with residents complaining that the local councilor of Ward No. 113, Anita Kar Majumdar, has not been seen in the area since the death of the Class 9 student.

While the Patuli police station OC was allegedly gheraoed by a group of protesters, Kolkata Police Assistant Commissioner Pradeep Ghoshal also faced protests later.

A total of five people, including BJP leader Ruby Mondal, were detained.

BJP workers and supporters, including Ganguly, reached Bansdroni police station on Wednesday night in protest, alleging that Mondal was brought to the station without any complaint and pointing out that none of the accused in the student’s death have been arrested yet. During the dharna, Ganguly said she would continue her protest until the accused were arrested.

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