Several top leaders of the West Bengal BJP including state BJP president Dilip Ghosh and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari were taken under preventive detention on Monday in Central Kolkata for staging a protest demonstration allegedly in violation of the Disaster Management Act.
The state BJP was observing ‘Paschim Banga Bachao Diwas’ (Save West Bengal Day) to counter the Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) ‘Khela Hobe Diwas (Game will be played day).
The demonstration was started by the state President of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha Saumitra Khan, Kalyan Chaubey and Mina Devi Purohit in Central Kolkata. But they were promptly detained by the police.
Soon after Ghosh and Adhikari started a protest demonstration against the detention of BJP leaders at the same venue. They were also detained by police citing the Disaster Management Act which is currently in force due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to reporters before his arrest Ghosh said that “the TMC is raising a lot of hue and cry about democratic rights in Tripura. But what are they doing in Bengal? They are preventing us from holding peaceful protests.”
The BJP leaders were taken to the Kolkata Police Headquarters and later released on a P R Bond. Although the state BJP claimed that their leaders and workers were arrested, Kolkata Police sources said that around 50 BJP workers and leaders were taken under preventive detention.
Published 16 August 2021, 15:25 IST