Kolkata: Several animal lovers were allegedly beaten up by the Bidhannagar Police on Tuesday night in front of Swasthaya Bhavan. Actor Debolina Dutta and Tathagata Mukherjee stated that the police had beaten them without any provocation. However, Bidhannagar Police have denied the allegation of beating them up and alleged that the group of pet lovers were creating a nuisance and hurled abusive languages at the cops and also at the lady police personnel.
According to Dutta, a group of animal lovers were protesting against the decision of allowing the two nursing students to attend class who were allegedly accused of murdering 16 puppies recently. Police personnel were also there since morning. It is alleged that late on Tuesday night, all of a sudden, police personnel started using abusive languages at them. They even assaulted a protester. Seeing him getting harassed, others present there protested. It is alleged that the cops then started beating up the demonstrators.
"We were peacefully sitting on the road and sloganeering. All of a sudden, police personnel started abusing us verbally and even beat us up despite our protest being a peaceful one. Even male police personnel heckled female protesters. Actually, they wanted to end their duty and go home and thus, they did this," said Dutta.
Though the actor and others claimed that police had beaten them without any provocation, Bidhannagar Police have denied the allegations. According to senior police officials, the protesters were creating nuisance in the area. They were repeatedly asked to leave the place but they did not bother to listen. On the contrary, protesters used abusive languages targeting the cops.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (headquarters) Amit Javalgi gave a written statement which read: "They marched towards the Swasthaya Bhavan and were stopped at the gates as 144 CrPC is promulgated around the building. The animal lovers continued their protest. The protest continued till midnight. The police did not impede them from doing so. However, after midnight, few protestors started beating drums causing nuisance in the area. Matters became serious when few of them started passing lewd remarks on lady police officers. When the officers went to attend and resolve the issue amicably they were pushed by few agitated protestors. Police tried to confine those who attacked them but they fled. The rest of the crowd left peacefully after that. If the police had any intention to take action against the protestors, they would have done it much earlier and wouldn't have waited till 1 am. No matter what the cause creating public nuisance by beating drums in the dead of the night and abusing policemen and lady police officers on duty is an offence. Police are duty-bound to ensure peaceful assembly but are equally responsible to ensure order."