Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay (wearing spectacles), the leader of the Auto Bachao Committee, and supporters block vehicles on Rashbehari Avenue to protest the auto ban. (Pabitra Das)

Calcutta, Jan. 2: If the court bans, they will use brawn.

Operators of illegal autos today let loose bursts of violence that appeared to be aimed at causing inconvenience to commuters and holding the law hostage with the threat of more lawlessness.

The show of force was backed by the Trinamul Congress, whose leader Mamata Banerjee squatted at a crossing that leads to the chief minister’s home to press for the release of 16 persons arrested for rioting.

At midnight, Mamata was sitting at the Palm Avenue-Bondel Road crossing after being stopped by police.

Another group of Trinamul supporters planted themselves on chairs at the Palm Avenue-Broad Street crossing. The blockades cut off two routes Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee takes to reach Writers’ Buildings. At least two other alternative routes were open till 1am on Saturday.

The auto operators turned violent as the police became less lenient on the second day of the ban and impounded 37 vehicles against six yesterday.

Trinamul led from the front in most areas where auto drivers blocked roads, damaged vehicles and prevented commuters from taking other forms of transport. Ekbalpore, Taratala, Hazra, Rashbehari Avenue and Pratapaditya Road bore the brunt. Roadblocks were put up by Citu and Trinamul-affiliated auto drivers at Ultadanga, Maniktala, Park Circus and Sealdah, too.

A Trinamul-backed union has called a 12-hour taxi and auto strike tomorrow in Calcutta from 6am — an agitation targeting commuters in the hope that the hardship will gradually build public opinion against the ban aimed at fighting air pollution. The union controls 8,000 of the 40,000 taxis in the city.

Protesters who were allegedly in a rally organised by Trinamul torched a state bus on Route 33 at the Hazra crossing around 2.50pm.

Mamata entered the picture a few hours after 16 persons were arrested — some from a Trinamul trade union office — for attacking vehicles. In the evening, she reached the office of the Indian National Trinamul Trade Union Congress on Pratapaditya Road, near Rashbehari crossing. “The police are targeting Trinamul supporters’ peaceful protest,” Mamata said.

Around 8.30pm, Mamata started a 5km trek that took her towards the chief minister’s residence but was stopped. “Why are you not releasing our men?” Mamata asked Sivaji Ghosh, the additional commissioner of police in charge of south Calcutta, at the Bondel Road crossing.

Ghosh: “We arrested 18 persons and released two who were not auto drivers. Of the 16, we will screen them further to check the extent of their offence. But they have been arrested under non-bailable sections and cannot be released before being produced in court.”

Mamata: “What you have done is discriminatory. I am losing my patience now. I will take out another procession tomorrow and there will be the Muharram procession. I will see how you manage both.”

She then chided the police for entering the union office. “Would you enter Alimuddin (the CPM headquarters) to ransack it and arrest people?”

Ghosh said some policemen entered the office but he had ordered them to come out immediately. The police said the auto raids would continue. But whether the government can stomach the backlash remains to be seen.