Kolkata: Six activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), including its general secretary Ritabrata Bandopadhyay, were arrested on Monday in connection with attacking West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her finance minister Amit Mitra.
They were, however, released on bail as the police could not submit their health reports.
Banerjee and Mitra were assaulted at the Planning Commission office gate in New Delhi on April 9 by activists of SFI, the students’ wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), when she had come to meet Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, and Rajiv Shukla, minister of state for planning.
The arrest happened on a day when Trinamool Congress MPs (members of parliament) had stalled house proceedings and demonstrated outside parliament, demanding justice and arrests of those caught on camera attacking the minister.
“The arrest just goes to show how politicised the whole idea of policing has become in this country. The attacks happened on April 9 and it has taken the Delhi Police 13 days to make the arrest,” said TMC leader of parliament Sudip Banerjee.
Earlier, Bandopadhyay offered an unconditional apology to Banerjee and Mitra for the incident.
Reacting to the news, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said: “The protest inside parliament by TMC members are ways to distract the incidents at Presidency College and the recent Sharda Group scam which has direct links with TMC party leaders. If proven guilty, our members will go to jail, but the same law should be applicable to TMC members also.”
Bose added: “TMC councillor Partha Bose, the main accused in the Presidency College vandalism, was arrested on such flimsy grounds that he got bail within two hours of being arrested. Also till now, no action has been taken against those responsible for the death of Sudipto Gupta who died in police custody.”
