Police arrest ‘mastermind’ in Park Circus, recreate scene

Kolkata: The Kolkata Police on Tuesday carried out a formal crime scene reconstruction at the busy Park Circus Seven-Point Crossing, where a mob reportedly targeted security forces on Sunday during a protest against bulldozer action in Tiljala.The police arrested the "main conspirator", Faridul Islam, who allegedly engineered the protest through social media. Faridul, a common face in the area since the NRC-CAA protests, was among the eight new people to be arrested since Monday. Lalbazar said till 7 pm on Tuesday, the total number of arrests stood at 46.The reconstruction of a crime scene in full public and media view, and, that too, for assault on security personnel, has not been conducted in the recent past. Crime scenes are usually reconstructed in cases of murder, theft and robbery.Police claimed Faridul would be key to their investigation and that a probe revealed he "engineered and incited Sunday's unrest by mobilising a crowd at the Park Circus crossing by posting provocative posts on social media". Police are questioning Faridul on whether there was a financier and if he "hired outsiders" for the protest. "Among the arrested are Md Zuber Alam (19) from Nawada in Bihar, Md Aman (22) from Azamgarh in UP, Jamil Ansari (30) from Jamtara in Jharkhand and Gulam Gaus (40) from Vaishali in Bihar," an officer said.Police said questioning gave them enough leads to confirm it was a "planned attack", as claimed by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday. The arrests and reconstruction of the scene followed a warning from Adhikari, who pointed out that any physical hostility, directed at uniformed personnel, would be met with an unyielding response.Four of the arrested were brought to the Park Circus Maidan a little after 11 am on Tuesday to reconstruct the crime. They reportedly told police that the bricks they had hurled were picked up from a construction site at the Park Circus Maidan, where the govt was building a structure. Bamboo sticks, used to attack cops, were also picked up from the site, police said. The arrested were taken to at least three bylanes between the Seven-Point Crossing and Brabourne College, where they reportedly first hid after attacking police and then, used them to escape from the spot. Police said the four helped them establish the sequence of events—the lanes from which the crowd first assembled, from where they sourced the stones and bricks and how they stockpiled those.The violence erupted on Sunday afternoon when a crowd converged on Park Circus to stage a demonstration against the bulldozer action in Tiljala. The junction soon turned into a battlefield as the mob vandalised vehicles belonging to both the KP and CAPF. At least six KP cops and two CAPF personnel were injured.A case was registered at the Beniapukur Police Station. Police said they would attach the properties of the accused to pay for the losses. Faridul on Sunday had said, "I did not call the protest. I saw the poster on social media. Since I was nearby, I attended it. There, I did not see anyone familiar, but it was a spontaneous protest against bulldozer action and the deletion of names from the electoral roll. Even my name was deleted." Activists and citizens condemned Faridul's arrest. Ranjit Sur, vice-president of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, said, "Faridul, associated with the human rights movement, is a democratic person and is not involved in hooliganism. The way he is arrested for dissenting opinion is uncalled for. We condemn the arrest of democratic movement activists." Film-maker Dwaipayan Banerjee said, "Faridul is an anti-NRC and anti-SIR activist. He was one of the organisers of the sit-ins at Park Circus against voter list name deletions. We condemn such arrests."