The ceiling fan of Yubak Sangha club hangs distorted after the melee. Picture by Soumen Bhattacharjee

A group of employees of a bar-cum-restaurant on VIP Road, near Teghoria, allegedly went on the rampage at a local club early on Wednesday and beat up its members, while policemen stood ?spectators?.

One of the injured said the secretary of Yubak Sangha had been beaten up so mercilessly that he had to be admitted to a local nursing home.

In a prompt action, Praveen Kumar, superintendent of police (North 24-Parganas), suspended two policemen who were deployed in front of the hotel on the charges of dereliction of duty.

?Two more officers have been shifted to the district police lines for not taking any action during the clash,? said Kumar. ?Besides, 19 persons, most of them hotel employees, have been arrested. Additional superintendent of police Dilip Banerjee has been asked to conduct a probe.?

According to the complaint lodged by the club members with Baguiati police, the attack was a fallout of a tiff.

Around 1.30 am, a van carrying fish overturned in the locality. ?We went there as the traders needed a cell phone to inform their wholesaler about the incident. Suddenly, four youths from the bar rushed out and started gathering the fish scattered near the van. They left when we protested,? said Bubai Mandal, club member.

An officer of Baguiati thana said: ?After the members returned to the club around 2 am, at least 15 men from the bar came and beat them up.?

Club member Subhojit Bose recounted: ?The group, led by hotel manager Paritosh Banerjee, was armed with hockey sticks. They started raining blows on us. The others escaped when we retaliated, but we managed to catch hold of Banerjee.?

The club members alleged that the bar employees returned again around 3 am. ?This time, they came in four cars, along with policemen. Armed with swords, hockey sticks and lathis, they entered our club office and members? room and went on the rampage.

?While some of the attackers were beating us up, the rest ransacked the furniture, damaged the carrom board and ceiling fan. The entire incident took place right in front of the policemen. We sought their help, but they did not pay any heed to our plea,? said Gopal Sarkar, who claims to have witnessed the incident.

Before leaving the place, the policeman picked up four club members, while the alleged attackers walked away scot-free. The four were released after local residents gheraoed the police station.

Hotel manager Banerjee refuted the accusation. He said: ?It was they who attacked us first and kept me confined in a room in the club. Police finally rescued me after breaking the door.?

That claim was not corroborated by the police.