Kolkata: Three people were arrested on Thursday in connection with one of the two criminal cases registered after two Muslim hawkers were assaulted back-to-back for selling chicken patties on Sunday near the venue of the mass recital of Bhagavad Gita verses at Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata.
The police identified the three arrested men as North 24 Parganas residents Soumik Golder (23) and Tarun Bhattacharya (51), and Hooghly resident Swarnendu Chakraborty (32).
“We have arrested three persons on Thursday. They have been booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) including 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings),” said a senior officer of the Maidan police station.
Sheikh Riyazul, a patties seller from Hooghly district’s Arambagh, who like every day had travelled to Kolkata by train to sell chicken and vegetable patties, was assaulted on Sunday by a group of around a dozen men.
“I have been selling chicken and vegetable patties in the Maidans for 22 years but something like this never happened. Around a dozen men accosted me. They asked my name and pounced on me the moment I said it. They asked why I was selling chicken,” Sheikh Riyazul said.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said while addressing a rally in Nadia district on Thursday, “We all recite the Bhagavad Gita at home. So what’s the need of organising a public meeting to recite the Bhagavad Gita? All of them (accused) have been arrested. This is West Bengal, not Uttar Pradesh. They beat up patties sellers. We arrested everyone last night.”
BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “Will she be able to tell this to the Muslims when they gather on the Red Road in Kolkata during Eid? Even Eid is celebrated and namaz is offered in masjids and every home? First let her raise the same question against Muslims. Then she can claim that she is secular and doesn’t engage in communal politics?”
The first complaint was filed on Monday by Md Salauddin, who lives in Kolkata’s Tiljala area. He alleged that three men assaulted him for selling chicken patties and made objectionable remarks about his religion.
Although Md Salauddin was the first to register his complaint at the Maidan police station, the matter came to light on Tuesday when videos of the assault on Sheikh Riyazul went viral, prompting lawyer and CPI(M) leader Sayan Banerjee to lodge a police complaint.
The event, organised by an organisation called Sanatan Sanskriti Sansad, was widely promoted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Bengal unit after suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Humayun Kabir laid the foundation stone of a mosque modelled on Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid in Murshidabad district on Saturday.
Governor CV Ananda Bose and Bengal’s top BJP leaders, including Union minister of state Sukanta Majumdar and the Bengal assembly’s leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari, attended the event where monks from across India took part.
