West Bengal Students’ ‘March to Nabanna’ Deemed ‘Illegal’ by Police

KOLKATA: In the face of the increasing public outcry over the recent rape-murder incident at Kolkata's R G Kar Hospital, an overnight student organization has come up to raise eyebrows demanding the ouster of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The students have named their group "Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj," that is, Society of Students in West Bengal, and they said they would hold a rally on Tuesday to march to the West Bengal state secretariat, Nabanna, pressing for their demand.

However, the justice movement for R G Kar has already become fragmented, with both the CPI(M) and Congress opting out of the movement, since some of the organisers are suspected to have RSS links.

The West Bengal Police has described the "Nabanna Abhijan" as illegal, and as such it has mobilized the police in anticipation of law-and-order problems during the march.

The TMC has named the rally a "conspiracy" to create chaos in the streets and released a couple of videos showing suspected BJP leaders of Ghatal in Paschim Medinipur district allegedly planning to trigger violence during the march. The authenticity of these videos could not be independently verified.

Additional DG Law and Order Manoj Verma said at a news conference that Nabanna is a prohibited zone because section 163 of BNSS has prohibited the assembly of five or more people.

He said information received suggested that some trouble mongers with ulterior motive might attempt to create a law-and-order situation so that any reaction from police could be used by them according to their aim.

At a news meet at Nabanna, ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar said no permission had been granted for any march to the state secretariat. He further informed that one student leader, who was part of the group organizing the march, met a "prominent political figure" on Sunday at a five-star hotel in Kolkata but did not disclose the name of the leader or the political figure.

The TMC claimed that the accused were associated with the BJP's student wing, the Chhatra Samaj. The TMC MLA from Kalna purba in East Burdwan, Arup Chakraborty, said Halder was facing a molestation case with the Nabadwip police.

Halder, one of the frontal organisation leaders of Chhatra Samaj, did not deny the allegation and instead said, "People who raise their voice against Mamata Banerjee's government face such complaints very often. As I have told you, da, I am a regular member of RSS and I am proud of it.".

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