Football fight keeps Dover Terrace awake through night

KOLKATA: Two groups of slum dwellers, aligned to two local clubs, came to blows with each other late on Friday, spreading terror in a portion of the posh

Dover Terrace

area near Gariahat through the night.


What started as a fight over a trivial issue during a

football

match on Thursday snowballed into a full-blown scuffle that kept central government employees, who have residences around the slum, awake through Friday night, fearing bigger trouble. Besides cops from the Gariahat police, a team from Lalbazar also reached the spot to rein in the two groups.

One of the injured, Ashok Ghosh’s both arms have been fractured.

According to residents of the area, trouble started around 11.30 pm, with a couple of boys from Young Fighter Club and members of

Dover

Youth Corner Club starting an altercation. The cops said the two clubs had a fallout during a football match at Vivekananda Park last Thursday over an alleged foul. “Both sides were nursing grudges. Following the match, several rounds of arguments broke out through the day and also on Friday. The animosity kept building till around 15-20 men got involved in a scuffle at night,” the police said. Though police denied any one was injured, residents claimed at least six people suffered injures.

A suo motu case has been initiated and a police picket set up in the area. “We are keeping an eye on the area,” said a senior police officer.

Several victims that TOI spoke to—Ashok Ghosh and his son Debasish Ghosh and their neighbour, Prasenjit Baidya—said members of Young Fighter Club members, numbering around 20, had barged into the Ghoshs’ residence, looking for Debasish. “They beat up Debasish so badly that he could not sit for his semester exam on Saturday. They fractured both my arms. At least two women of our family were beaten up,” claimed Ashok Ghosh. “Even Prasenjit suffered injuries in his ears. But cops have not been able to arrest anyone.”

With the rioting at a

Ballygunge

complex, where slum-dwellers smashed 76 vehicles inside an apartment after a fatal accident, still fresh in mind, Dover Terrace residents hoped arrests would be carried out fast. “The Ballygunge rioting took place two years ago and a similar incident can take place any time again,” said an officer from the Gariahat police station.