Chhatra Samaj firm on march to Nabanna, police call it ‘potentially disruptive’

Amid claims by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and West Bengal Police of potential disruptions, student organisation Chhatra Samaj insisted that its 27 August 'Nabanna Abhijan' rally will be peaceful and focused on demanding the resignation of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the arrest of those responsible for the alleged rape-murder of a doctor in R.G. Kar hospital.

The call for protest march to Nabanna, the Bengal state secretariat, was separately given by an unregistered students’ body Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj (West Bengal Students Community) and the Sangrami Joutha Mancha (Joint Platform of Struggle), an organisation of state government employees who have been agitating since long demanding their DA to be made at par with their central government counterparts.

The state police have called the scheduled rallies, support for which has been mainly garnered over social media platforms, as "illegal" and “unauthorised”, and said they have taken necessary precautions to allay apprehensions about potential law and order situations during the march.

Addressing reporters at Nabanna, ADG (Law and Order) Manoj Verma said that police have received credible intelligence suggesting attempts would be made by miscreants to mix among protestors and incite large-scale violence and chaos during the rally.

The government has already imposed prohibitory orders near Nabanna under Section 163 of BNSS preventing the assembly of five or more persons.

Calling the rally a “conspiracy” to cause chaos on the streets, the Trinamool Congress released a couple of purported videos of BJP leaders from Ghatal in Paschim Medinipur district planning to incite violence at the rally.

Both leaders were detained for questioning by the police.

Meanwhile, in a video message released by the Raj Bhavan late Monday evening, governor C.V. Ananda Bose urged the state government not to use power to stop the students from organising the rally.

"In the context of the peaceful protest announced by the students' community of West Bengal tomorrow and the reported suppression of the protest by several instructions from the government, I would urge the government to remember the strong pronouncement of the Supreme Court of India. Let not the power of the state of West Bengal be unleashed on peaceful protestors," Bose said.

The apex court on 22 August said peaceful protests over the incident shall not be disturbed or disrupted by the West Bengal government. The court, however, clarified that it has not injuncted the state government from exercising lawful powers.

Chhatra Samaj spokesperson Sayan Lahiri said, "The claims made by the TMC and police are baseless. We aim to raise our demands peacefully. If we are stopped, we will attempt to proceed to the secretariat gate in a non-violent manner to demand the CM's resignation due to her failure to prevent incidents like the RG Kar case which has shocked the nation." 

Lahiri claimed that the rallies, which will start from several places and move towards Nabanna, are organised by an apolitical platform with no affiliations to the BJP, RSS, or ABVP.

He noted, "We have informed the police about the rally via email and discussed it with senior officers multiple times. The allegations that our rally is illegal are untrue."

Later in the evening, ADG, South Bengal Supratim Sarkar told reporters that the police rejected applications of both organisations which were sent to the police at the eleventh hour.

"We have received separate mails from the two organisations only after we held a press conference earlier in the day. The one from ‘Chhatra Samaj’ was only an intimation about the programme having no details on the rally and did not seek any permission. Hence it was rejected," Sarkar said.

“The second application had details of their expected turnout and other relevant information but was also rejected because of two reasons. First, a significant number of students would appear for their scheduled UGC-NET examinations on Tuesday, and second, permission is not granted to anyone to hold any gathering around the Nabanna due to the existing prohibitory orders in that area,” he added.

Sarkar appealed to people to maintain a normal life and not get swayed by provocations or walk into any kind of trap.

Lahiri said, "Since the movement was organised through a social media campaign, we cannot provide an exact estimate."

In a late evening development, the police shifted a group of people who gathered near Nabanna which is located in Howrah.

In the wake of possible disruption of normal life because of the protest march, several educational institutions will either hold online classes on Tuesday or have declared a holiday.

Meanwhile, the CBI on Monday held a second round of polygraph tests on former R.G. Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh and five others as part of their investigation into the rape-murder of a woman doctor at the institution.

According to an officer, over the last 10 days, Ghosh provided inconsistent answers during questioning, prompting officers to conduct another round of polygraph tests.

The CBI initially conducted the lie-detection tests on Ghosh and others on Saturday, followed by a test on the arrested accused Sanjay Roy at the Presidency Correctional Home on Sunday.

Ghosh and former hospital official Sanjay Vashisth are also being investigated for alleged financial irregularities at the institution.