Protesters, cops clash during Kolkata march, BJP calls for Bengal bandh today

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 27

The ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ march by the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed student organisation “Paschimbanga Chattro Samaj” (West Bengal Student Society) in Kolkata on Tuesday turned violent resulting into multiple clashes between the police and protesters.

Demanding resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the rally, which was taken out despite denial of police permission, to the state secretariat was held in protest against the alleged mishandling of the rape and murder of the 31-year-old woman doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Clashes broke out between police and protesters on GT Road in Howrah Maidan area when the protesters tried to march towards the state secretariat. Police lathicharged and used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters who threw stones and bricks at the security forces and attempted to topple barricades blocking their way to the state secretariat.

A policeman, in-charge of Chanditala police station in Howrah Police Commissionerate, was injured in the clash. The images of police highhandedness from Kolkata have angered every person who values democratic principles. In Didi’s West Bengal, to help rapists and criminals is valued but it’s a crime to speak for women’s safety,” BJP national president and Health Minister JP Nadda wrote on X.

The BJP has also called for a 12-hour general strike in West Bengal on August 28 to protest against the police action on those who took part in the march to the state secretariat. Police said 220 people have been arrested.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case to probe alleged financial irregularities at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital during the tenure of its former principal Sandip Ghosh and some others, official sources said Tuesday.

The CBI will consult experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here on the DNA and other forensic reports related to the rape and murder of the Kolkata woman doctor, officials said Tuesday.