Kolkata: CPIM youth wing leader and member of the party’s Kolkata district committee, Kalatan Dasgupta, was arrested today for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to attack and derail the sit-in demonstration of junior doctors, who are demanding justice for the rape and murder of a female medic of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The police move came in the wake of Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh making an audio clip public on Friday and alleging that a conspiracy was on to attack the demonstration site and derail the protest outside Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department headquarters in Sector 5 of Salt Lake.
The Bidhannagar Police Commissionarate had lodged a suo motu case in connection with the audio clip and initiated investigations.
During the probe, a person, identified as Sanjib Das, was arrested last night from the Haltu area of Kasba in south Kolkata for his involvement in the case. Police claimed that Das was one of the two persons whose voice was heard in the audio clip.
Today, when Kalatan and another party colleague were returning home from the Left Front’s overnight sit-in demonstration at Phears Lane in central Kolkata adjacent to the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar, they were stopped midway and the CPIM leader was initially detained for questioning and later arrested.
Kalatan was brought to the Electronics Complex police station soon after his arrest and will be produced before a local court along with Sanjib Das, police said.
“We have done a technical assessment of the audio clip and taken opinion from experts. Sanjib Das has already confessed that one of voices in the audio clip belongs to him. We will seek custody for both,” said deputy commissioner of police, Bidhannagar, Anish Sarkar.
While being taken inside the police station, the arrested CPIM leader said that they are demanding justice for RG Kar medic rape and murder and police action is aimed at diverting attention from the demands and it was a conspiracy against him.
CPIM leader Sujan Chakraborty and Satarup Ghosh crticised the arrest of Kalatan Dasgupta and alleged that the audio clip was made using AI technology.
“It is a very immature move by the police. The state police should first take Kunal Ghosh into custody and find how he got the clip. Instead of that, police are unnecessarily harassing people who are demanding justice in the RG Kar case. We will see to the end of this,” said former Kolkata Mayor and CPIM Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Bhattacharya.
The protesting junior doctors have been continuing their ceasework for the past 34 days and outside Swasthya Bhavan for the last four days with a host of demands, including security revamp of state-run hospitals, removal of a set of senior health department officials and resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner in connection with the RG Kar rape and murder case.
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