Adhikari withdraws 'Nabanna Abhijan', goes to hospital to meet RG Kar victim's parents

Kolkata: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday called off the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ after a three-hour sit-in in the heart of the city where hundreds of protestors demanding justice for the raped-murdered RG Kar hospital medic were stopped by police and lathicharged.

Announcing the withdrawal of the protest at the intersection of Park Street-J L Nehru Road, Adhikari said the decision was influenced in part by the hospitalisation of the victim’s mother, who, he claimed, was "brutally lathicharged by police and suffered injury on her forehead."

"As the parents of the deceased doctor had participated in the rally on my invitation, it is my duty to look after their well being and follow-up her treatment. The ruthless police action also shows the scant regard for democracy, peaceful protest, and women’s safety. We will announce the next course of agitation later," he said.

Adhikari said while the demonstration and sit-in were being withdrawn for the day, a fiercer next phase of agitation would be decided in consultation with BJP state unit chief Samik Bhattacharya, party leadership, and other stakeholders.

He said the sit-in was also being withdrawn as another agitation slated to be held by the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front and Abhaya Manch will shortly take place in the city and "we want them to carry on their battle for justice." "It is another matter that the doctors' front did not support our rally to secretariat. But our demand and battle are for the same issue. Arrest of all those involved in the larger conspiracy behind the heinous incident which can only be possible by dislodging this tyrant Mamata Banerjee regime," he added.

Displaying a video clip purportedly showing police action on protestors, Adhikari said, "Under relevant sections of the BNS, we will call for action against Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma and other police officials involved in atrocities on peaceful demonstrators." He later went to see the mother of the deceased to a super-speciality hospital in the city and said her condition was serious and she is under serious pain.

Adhikari alleged there was conspiracy to "finish" the parents during the rally as they refused to toe the line of state government and did not waver from the path of protest since their daughter's rape-murder.

Earlier in the day, the mother of the RG Kar victim had alleged that she was roughed up by women police personnel while on her way to join a march to the state secretariat 'Nabanna', called to mark one year of the rape-murder of her daughter.

She claimed that in the scuffle, her 'shankha' (traditional conch shell bangle) was broken and she sustained a head injury.

Reacting to BJP's charges, senior Trinamool Congress leader and state minister Sashi Panja said "BJP resorted to vandalism in the name of peaceful protests." "Outsiders were brought in for the rally. The trouble makers don't understand the spirit of Raksha Bandhan. They don't understand the spirit, culture, heritage of Bengal. They are trying to destabilise the state on the day of a festival," she said.

TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said "gathering trouble mongers on a pious day of Raksha Bandhan and trying to foment trouble shows BJP has little respect for Hindus." "There was not more than few hundred protesters at the rally and they continued to provoke police who showed much restraint," he claimed.