Congress leader Atanu Das was arrested from his Regent Park home around midnight and sent to four days of police remand after a protest over religious preacher Bageshwar Baba’s remarks on non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja in Bengal.
Das was arrested in connection with an FIR registered at Bhowanipore police station on a complaint by the Kaushalya Nandan Dharm Jagran Samity, an organisation based in Garden Reach. Police charged him under non-bailable sections relating to promoting disharmony, hurting religious sentiments and common intention. The charges, if proved in court, could carry a prison sentence of up to five years.
According to a senior police officer, a demonstration at 42, SP Mukherjee Road, on Tuesday afternoon involved Congress leaders Pradip Prasad, Ashutosh Chatterjee and Das, along with others. Police alleged that the demonstrators burnt, trampled on and struck a photograph of Bageshwar Baba with shoes, while making derogatory and disrespectful remarks.
Prasad, who is the president of the South Kolkata District Congress Committee, rejected the allegations. He said the protesters had demonstrated outside Bhowanipore police station after lodging a complaint, and that some party members later burnt a photograph at the insistence of a YouTuber who had arrived after the main demonstration. Prasad also questioned why arrests had not been made immediately if the police allegations were correct.
The arrests followed a direction by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on the floor of the Assembly on Thursday. Referring to the alleged burning of the preacher’s photographs, Adhikari directed the Kolkata police commissioner to arrest those involved and said the government would not tolerate appeasement politics.
The dispute began after remarks made by Bageshwar Baba during a religious programme in Howrah’s Liluah. He criticised the preparation of non-vegetarian food near Durga Puja pandals and asked his audience whether meat and liquor shops should be closed during the festival. The remarks triggered protests and multiple police complaints by Congress leaders.
At Alipore court on Friday, chief public prosecutor Sourin Ghosal said Das’s actions had hurt the sentiments of the preacher’s followers and sought police custody to investigate the alleged motive and whether others were involved. A lawyer for the complainant organisation said custody was necessary to examine whether Das had links with extremist groups. Das’s lawyer, Sumitra Niyogi, alleged that the police were arresting protesters instead of acting against the preacher.
The court sent Das to police remand for four days. The police investigation and further court proceedings will determine how the charges and the competing accounts of the protest are examined.
