Police used minimum force to quell mob: ADG Supratim Sarkar
The Statesman | 17 May 2025
Referring to the use of force by the police on the agitating teachers on Thursday night at Bikash Bhawan, the state police justified the police role for exercising utmost restraint and patience, while passing the buck on a section of the protesting teachers in making the situation “volatile” by turning against the police.
The police had to use force to make room for the government employees stuck inside Bikash Bhawan.
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Elucidating the details on the lead-up to last night violence, Supratim Sarkar, ADG (South Bengal) at a Press conference said that police had used minimum force to quell the mob of teachers, who were protesting there. Mr Sarkar said police had repeatedly asked the protesting teachers to make way for the safe passage of government employees stuck inside. But the teachers did not budge.
Justifying the police role, Mr Sarkar said: “The protesting teachers, who were continuing their sit-in for the last 10 days at the site were by and large peaceful, but on Thursday a surging group of teachers moved in to the of Bikash Bhawan allegedly by unlocking one of the gates and resorted to squatting on the premises the facility despite the police deployment. Police exercised utmost restraint and patience while cooperating with them so that they can continue their peaceful agitation. Police showed an exemplary trial of patience and restraint even in the face of provocations from a section of the teachers, who invaded into the premise by breaking open the gate and staged squatting on the premise by holding the government employees of nearly 55 offices in the facility to ransom by not allowing them to go out. It became all the more intolerable, since repeated attempts to pursue them to stay aside from the area and continue their stir peacefully in other parts went in vain.”
The ADG (South Bengal) also ruled out the growing theory of police being “inert or inactive” in the morning and became all the more “proactive” at night saying: “Police exercised a trial of patience and restraint and were not helpless. Had the police decided to unleash brutality, it could have done so in the morning itself when a group of teachers had entered the premises by breaking open the gate despite police presence. Our objective was not to prevent a peaceful agitation. But having said that if the staging of a protest is anybody’s democratic rights, to recognise the rights of other government employees, held captive inside the building is their fundamental rights and the duty of the police is to facilitate their passage out. We thought it prudent to apply the minimum force it required to disperse the mob still squatting on the premises.”
Mr Sarkar also said that about 19 police personnel sustained injuries and an investigation was underway to identify the persons among the teachers, who acted as provocateurs to foment trouble and would take legal action in accordance with the law.