‘Victory by bullets not ballot, is this democracy?’ read a poster held by Chatterjee and Justice Ganguly.
“I had something to say and this I felt would be a good opportunity (to express my views). It is important for people to live with their heads held high,” Chatterjee said.
“This is corruption in the name of election. The supremo of the ruling party doesn’t have much regard for rules or laws. To hold on to our independence is of prime importance but we are not being able to hold on to it,” asked Justice Ganguly. (Anup Bhattacharya)
The police commissioner's report on the shooting in which sub-inspector Jagannath Mandal was injured says "some person or persons" were responsible for it.
Surajit Kar Purkayastha's report, submitted to the state election commission late on Wednesday and read by panel chief S.R. Upadhaya on Thursday morning, has no mention of the political affiliation of the group the police team found itself surrounded by in Singhibagan, in the Girish Park area, after Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls ended on April 18.
Commission sources, however, said such reports usually did not specify political allegiances of people involved in violence.
The mob, which was heading towards a contingent of Congress workers, allegedly comprised supporters of the Trinamul Congress.
Upadhaya had complained to governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Wednesday afternoon about the police's delay in submitting the report. The report reached his office around 10 hours after he had met the governor.
The panel chief said he would brief the governor about the report soon. Tripathi had, according to the poll panel chief, expressed concern about the firing and sought details of what had actually happened.
"The report mentions a clash outside a Congress office on Rajendranath Street that the police had gone to stop. Later, two groups seemed headed for another clash. The police were trying to prevent it," Upadhaya said, paraphrasing a section of the report. "There, some person or persons from that mob fired."
The firing, Upadhaya said, left Mandal and a person identified as a Congress worker injured. The officer-in-charge of Girish Park police station took the worker to hospital.
Mandal was shot at when he and other officers of Girish Park police station went to Singhibagan after suspected Trinamul activists attacked a Congress leader's home with bombs.
Sources said by the time the police team had reached, only Trinamul supporters were there, one of whom allegedly shot at Mandal.
Hearing about the incident, a police team rushed to the spot and picked up two persons from a Trinamul office, where they were sitting with former Trinamul MLA Sanjay Bakshi, whose wife Smita is the local MLA and councillor. Four others were arrested during a raid that night.
All six were found to be supporters of the ruling party. They, according to sources and evidences police found, are associates of Burrabazar don Gopal Tiwari, who known to be close to Bakshi.
