Police on Tuesday paraded four men arrested in connection with Sunday’s protest at the Park Circus seven-point crossing, holding some of them by the waist, in what officers said was an attempt to reconstruct how the clashes unfolded.

The four men, whom the police described as “prime instigators”, were escorted through stretches of the crossing while officers questioned them about where the crowd had first assembled and from which direction the attacks on the police had begun.

Deviating from the usual norm of covering the faces of accused persons, the men were brought to the spot with their faces uncovered.

Two of them tried to shield their faces with the shirts they were wearing. The other two managed to cover themselves with handkerchiefs.

Several police personnel described the exercise as unusual.

Many officers said they had not previously seen accused persons in a case involving allegations of stone pelting and clashes with the police being publicly paraded through
the scene of clashes in this manner.

Officers at Lalbazar said the reconstruction exercise was intended to provide investigators with “a clear picture” of how things unfolded on Sunday.

“Some of the accused were taken to the spots where they said the gathering had taken place. We wanted to know where they collected the stones and bricks that were hurled at the police. They have told us. The idea is to identify the instigation behind the attack,” a city police officer said.

An officer of assistant commissioner rank led the exercise.

Till Monday, the police had arrested 40 people in connection with the clashes. On Tuesday, six more arrests were made, taking the total number of arrests to 46.

Police sources said one of those arrested on Tuesday was Faridul Islam.

The police alleged that he had actively instigated the crowd by livestreaming the protest on Facebook and providing commentary from the spot through his profile.

Around 200 men and women had gathered at the Park Circus crossing on Sunday afternoon to protest against the BJP government’s use of bulldozers.

The police said stones were hurled at personnel and police vehicles were damaged in the clashes that followed.

On Monday, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari compared Calcutta to Srinagar and said that, like in Kashmir, incidents of stone pelting on the police should stop in the city.

Suvendu also warned against future attacks on police personnel. “Holding political and religious agitations and demonstrations is fine as this is a democratic country. But we will not allow any violence or attack on the police,” he had said.