Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and other senior police officers addressed the media at Lal Bazar’s Kolkata Police Headquarters on Friday. |Photo source: Shrabana Chatterjee
Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and other senior police officials justified the police’s actions against protesting teachers on Friday (11 April 2025), and a few days later, police officers charged and attacked protesters during incitement in Kasba, southern Kolkata.
In a visual effect that appeared in the protests held in the office of school inspector Kasba on April 9, uniformed police officers were seen beating protesters with batons, kicking and pushing them.
Protesters are inciting the Supreme Court to cancel nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching tasks in West Bengal to recruit irregularities. After the protest, they accused police of causing serious injuries and cite multiple incidents where the police baton “breaks” under the force of the alleged force of Lasi.
Two protesters were reportedly hospitalized after the conflict.
Instead, several senior officials of Kolkata police, including the police chief, had earlier claimed that the use of “light force” was “necessary” to disperse mobs allegedly unruly protesting teachers and prevent them from damaging property.
Police also proposed FIR against protest teachers under multiple sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in the Kasba Police Department.
“After protesters attacked them, 13 police officers were injured. One of them was hospitalized for three days. Another police officer was accused of attacking the protester suffered injuries in his groin area and chest. His ears were hit, his glasses were broken, and his glasses were broken,” Mr Verma said on Friday.
He claimed that despite police actions “demonized” during the day’s clash, protesters allegedly allegedly attacked police personnel have no comment.
The Police Commissioner added: “The police are not expected to take action when they are injured. However, the actions of a specific police officer on the day were not desirable and we have taken measures to ensure that this does not happen again.”
The joint commissioner of Kolkata police officer Rupesh Kumar (Crime) showed certain videos and photos, claiming there was evidence that the protesters did not provoke, violated roadblocks and gates, attacked police officers and locked the lock with the concrete block on April 9.
“Some protesters who turned violence were identified as outsiders, not teachers. Protesters in the office were also heard telling each other to each other, telling each other to break more locks and burning the place with gasoline. Even at this point, the police did not use force. They used minimal force in self-defense and protesters directly attacking the police.”
But Mehboob Mondal, the representative of the excited teacher, questioned the police’s claims, saying there were no outsiders when Kasba’s incitement and that audio excerpts of the protest were “abuse” by police.
“The teacher who saw that said ‘setting fire with gasoline’ was under a lot of coercion. He had a kid in his home and had recently lost his job. Now for many days, he kept saying that he should be burned by gasoline because he had no hope and caught fire. He doesn’t mean that public property or police officers should be raised with petrol,” Mr. Mondal said.
It is also worth noting that Ritan Das, deputy police inspector who was kicked and pushed out protesters during the conflict, was initially appointed as the investigative officer in the case. But after protests in some areas, he was replaced by Deputy Inspector Sanjay Singh.
publishing – April 11, 2025 at 10:54 pm IST
