Calcutta police will allow politicians to parade children as monkeys but don’t you dare ape a monkey in uniform.

An animal rights activist standing outside Alipore zoo in khaki and monkey mask was hauled up for “impersonation” — as a cop and not a monkey, we are told — a day after police officers ignored slum kids being hired to play monkeys in a Congress protest.

Chiranjeet Karar of Peta, the global animal rights organisation known for its aggressive methods, was docile in comparison as he stood at the zoo gate on Wednesday afternoon with a placard reading “Zoos are death traps for animals”. Two colleagues in Peta T-shirts stood at a distance.

The convoy of forest minister Ananta Roy, who had visited the zoo to enquire about the theft of eight rare monkeys from a cage on Sunday, was leaving the premises around 1.30pm when an assistant commissioner of police, Anil Kar, spotted the uniformed activist at the gate.

He immediately asked a junior colleague to check the epaulette (the shoulder lapel) of the uniform. The constable found a star on the lapel — the rank that a star denotes varies depending on the police service — but no name badge on the chest.

Subrata Mukherjee with one of the boys paraded as monkeys at the zoo on Tuesday

Kar, smoking a cigarette, appeared confident that he had a case against the youth. “Do you know that wearing the police uniform is an offence? You will be arrested for this,” he threatened Chiranjeet.

Tenzing Bhutia, the officer-in-charge of Watgunge police station who was a spectator to Tuesday’s monkey business at the zoo, stood nearby looking suitably angry.

As Kar held the activist by his arm and dragged him towards a waiting police car, Peta campaign co-ordinator Arkaprava Bhar stepped in.“We didn’t mean to break any rule. We were just protesting against the theft of eight Common Marmosets from the zoo. This is a silent protest,” he pleaded.

Kar wouldn’t listen.

Chiranjeet was bundled into the vehicle and taken to Alipore police station, where he was detained till 5pm.

The youth, a company executive who does voluntary work for Peta, has been asked to report at the police station on Thursday. “People who are not with the police cannot wear the uniform. They can be charged with impersonation,” Kar later told Metro.

The law states that it is a crime to impersonate only when the motive is to cheat. “Section 416 of the IPC clearly says that it is a crime to impersonate if the purpose of doing so is to cheat. It is obvious that the Peta activist had no intention of cheating anyone,” said advocate Sekhar Basu.

Since Sunday, when thieves entered the zoo and made off with eight Common Marmosets the size of sewer rats, politicians of all hues have raided the premises to protest the theft and broken every rule in the bargain.

On Monday, the Congress and Trinamul used loudspeakers at the zoo. The Congress brigade also came armed with larger-than-life posters of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi that were put up at strategic locations.

Parliamentarian Deepa Das Munshi had led the Congress protest while Partha Chatterjee, the leader of the Opposition, captained the Trinamul team.

The circus continued on Tuesday with a Congress-affiliated zoo employees’ union picking up three children aged between 10 and 12 from a Kidderpore slum and making them wear monkey suits to participate in a protest.

Asit Pal, the deputy commissioner of police (port), said the use of loudspeakers would be investigated if the zoo authorities lodged a complaint.

The man who could have lodged a complaint, former zoo director S.K. Choudhury, has been suspended for the security breach that led to the monkey theft.

False alarm

The police were in a tizzy late on Wednesday night after receiving a call from the zoo about two intruders, one of them brandishing a dagger, on the premises. The police searched the zoo but found nobody.