(Right) MLA Ashok Mondol and SI Alok Roy (circled) at the venue on Sunday. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Surprise: A sub-inspector rips Trinamul Congress banners and disconnects loudspeakers, unable to bear the noise at a public meeting.

Surprise, surprise: The sub-inspector has been taken off duty and sent to the barracks as punishment.

The unusual events — an officer daring to take the law into his hands to tackle public nuisance and the police boss summoning courage to act against him, although the “aggrieved party” is the CPM’s enemy number one — unfolded in Cooch Behar’s Dinhata over the past 48 hours.

The punishment mirrors the craving for self-preservation that seems to have set in among the bureaucracy and police administration after years of subservience to the Left and amid signs of impending change.

The Trinamul meeting, a part of the civic election campaign, was being held near the police station in Ward 6 where Dinhata Trinamul MLA Ashok Mondol is a candidate for the May 30 municipal polls. The administration had given permission to hold the meeting from 6pm to 9pm.

Sub-inspector Alok Roy, who had night duty the day before, was trying to catch some sleep at his quarters within the police station when “mike testing” started in earnest.

The rising decibel from the testing apparently jolted Roy out of bed. “I had no political motive…. It is just that I could not bear the din. It was hurting my ears and head,” Roy said.

Roy then came out of his quarters — he was still wearing the vest in which he went to sleep — tore up some banners and unplugged the loudspeakers.

Kaushik Bhattacharya, a doctor based in Siliguri, said high-decibel sounds can damage the eardrums and cause psychiatric problems. “Some people may feel irritated, others may face discomfort…it varies from person to person.”

The administration gives permission for the use of loudspeakers on the condition that the decibel level stays below 60. But neither do too many organisers adhere to the norm nor do officials measure the decibel level to verify if the rule is being broken.

Trinamul, predictably, made the officer’s action an issue and alleged both the police and Left cadres were frequently disrupting its campaign. True to style, Trinamul supporters laid siege to the Dinhata police station till 11pm.

The outgoing Dinhata civic board is held by the Forward Bloc which also represents the area in the Lok Sabha. But the MLA now belongs to Trinamul.

The blurred picture — plus the possibility of Trinamul taking Writers’ next year — appears to have made the police administration brook no charges of discrimination.

Cooch Behar superintendent of police Kalyan Banerjee today said sub-inspector Roy had been sent to the barracks. “A deputy superintendent of police is investigating the incident and appropriate action will be taken. We spoke to the Trinamul leaders last night and the matter has been resolved,” Banerjee said.

Asked if the loudspeakers had exceeded 60 decibels, Banerjee said: “Nobody measured. I don’t know. But what he (Roy) has done is not correct.”

However MLA Mondol said: “We had police permission and despite that this officer acted in an undemocratic manner. Nothing will happen to him, he will be rewarded by the CPM.”