Kolkata: Outrage follows attack on anti-CAA protesters; 3 held

KOLKATA: Hours after a group of present and former Jadavpur University students, young artists and intellectuals — who had gathered under the banner of Feminists in Resistance — were attacked by alleged ABVP supporters at Baghajatin I block on Sunday for protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the police have arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in the incident.

ABVP has denied involvement of their supporters and said that they had nothing to do with the incident.
One of the arrested persons was nabbed from the spot by locals before being handed over to the cops. The protesters and locals had chased at least eight attackers, who were armed with sticks and rods.
Police said all three arrested — Sayan Lahiri, Sourav Sarkar and Suman Kalyan Das — are either from the BJP or ABVP and have been lodged at Lalbazar central lock-up. One of the three was later granted bail by a local court on Tuesday. Two separate FIRs have been lodged in this case, both having molestation charge.
The incident, reported by the TOI on Monday, took place around 10pm after the group of around 25 comprising mostly young women and men completed a protest rally at Baghajatin I block against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Among those who were reportedly injured in the attack were award winning filmmaker and rights activist Debalina Majumdar and Debatree Goswami aka Bukun, daughter of poet Joy Goswami. Doctor Ranjita Biswas and teacher Kaustuv Dasgupta were also allegedly assaulted. Majumdar was later taken to a private clinic and Dasgupta had to be briefly hospitalized.
Majumdar, meanwhile, said that she and her friends had organized a “peace rally” in the Baghajatin area in south Kolkata. “Following the rally we were having tea when we were attacked by a group of eight men, who were shouting Jai Sri Ram slogans. They randomly started beating us with sticks. My camera was also broken,” she said. Majumdar is a filmmaker whose documentaries and features are screened in all major film festivals in India and across the world.
The incident, meanwhile, has evoked criticism both on streets and on social media. A video footage of the incident went viral even as students, who hit the streets around noon on Monday — from Howrah, Sealdah and Maulana Azad College — kept condemning the incident during the rallies. A separate protest took place at the Baghajatin spot around 6.30pm on Monday that was attended by several intellectuals. Citizens also took to Facebook and Twitter to express solidarity. “Take care…Do not worry there are many behind you. This fight will continue,” wrote Sarbani Guha Ghosal on Bukun’s wall.
“We have received some video footage of the incident. Continuous raids are being carried out. We are slapping strong charges against the accused,” said DC (south suburban) Sudip Sarkar. The police, who stepped up security around Jadavpur University in the wake of Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s visit on Monday morning, have asked the group to inform them if they need any police help in organizing the protests in the area.