Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari moved the Calcutta High Court Tuesday after police denied him permission to visit Mothabari and to hold a protest rally at Kanthi concerning the recent communal clashes and violence at Mothabari.

Adhikari’s counsel, Mayukh Mukherjee, mentioned the matters to a bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh. Both will be heard on Thursday.

The counsel has prayed for Adhikari to be allowed to visit Mothabari along with an MLA and security personnel. Furthermore, Mukherjee submitted that police did not grant permission to Adhikari to hold a protest rally at Kanthi on Tuesday. “Yesterday night, the police cancelled the rally, even though (a new date of April 3) was provided, the police are not cooperating,” he said.

On Sunday, citing prohibitory orders, police stopped a BJP delegation under the leadership of state party President and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar three kilometres from Mothabari in West Bengal’s Malda district, which witnessed a communal clash on March 27.

Trouble began on Thursday after a religious procession passed by a place of worship in Mothabari on Wednesday evening, according to residents. Violence, including arson, vandalism and physical attacks on people, took place.

Majumdar had asked party workers and leaders to “keep vigil” in the strife-affected areas and said that Hindus in Malda cannot be persecuted because they are “minorities”.

The West Bengal police Saturday told mediapersons that the situation at Mothabari was under control and 16 cases have been registered. Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Jawed Shamim had said that 61 persons have been arrested.

Meanwhile Murshidabad police district had also registered two cases relating to arson in the Naoda area .

The Calcutta High Court had, on Friday, directed the District Magistrate and the SP of Malda to file an action-taken report over the violence by April 3 after a PIL was filed to demand an NIA investigation into the matter.