Rallyists stopped from marching to Park Street
A protest rally organised by the intellectuals along with state Congress leaders to mark the one year of Park Street gangrape case was stopped by the police from entering Park Street on Tuesday afternoon. Venting their anger on the Mamata Banerjee government for trying to “gag their voice”, the rallyists sat on the road.
The protest march started in the afternoon from Gandhi Statue and took Mayo Road. Educationist Sunando Sanyal, painter Samir Aich, former Naxal leader Asim Chatterjee et al walked side by side with state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya and other party leaders, including Nirbed Roy. When they reached the intersection of Mayo Road-Jawaharlal Nehru Road-Kyd Street, a police team intervened.
As the rally was disallowed to move further, the intellectuals sat down on the road. Mr Aich said, “Exactly one year has passed but still the main culprit and another accused have not been arrested despite the submission of chargesheet. Rather an able IPS officer like Damayanti Sen was removed from her post of joint commissioner of police (crime)”It maybe noted that prime accused Kader Khan along with Mohammed Ali, another accused, are still at large even as the charges in the case are scheduled to be framed by the court on February 19.
Mr Aich added, “When the chief minister had said that the case was fabricated, we were hurt. She may have viewed the incident as a fabricated one but we cannot agree with her. One day, we took to streets for her party. Shockingly, after coming to power, they are now trying to gag our voice by stopping our protest rally.”
Attacking the state government, the state Congress president said: “The Mamata Banerjee government is in jittery as it considers any protest rally to be against it. If it is not true, then why was our rally stopped?” Later, the rallyists submitted a deputation demanding the arrest of the accused who are absconding to the Park Street police station.
According to sources, the police learnt of the rally in the morning following a report by the city police’s special branch which indicated of the South Kolkata district Congress’ role in organising the event without any party flag. Senior police officers, however, pointed out that no permission was sought from Lalbazar for the rally.
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