Kolkata: The Kolkata Police has arrested three workers from BJP’s legal cell for raising the incendiary ‘Goli Maro..." (shoot the traitors) slogan while they were on their way to a rally addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the city on Sunday afternoon.
An FIR was registered against Surendra KumarTiwari, 55, Dhruba Basu, 71 and Pankaj Prasad late in the night at the New Market police station in Kolkata.
The arrest was made after police went through the CCTV footage of the rally. All three were picked up from their houses on early Monday morning and booked under Sections 505, 506, 34 and 153A of the IPC. “Yes, three persons were arrested and today they will be produced before a city court,” said Murlidhar Sharma, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).
Reacting to the move, State BJP president, Dilip Ghosh, accused the Mamata Banerjee led TMC government in the state of harassing the members of his party. “The TMC only knows how to harass our party workers. I would like to ask why they didn’t take a legal action when people raised ‘Azadi’ slogans in Kolkata. Those who destroy our government property should not be treated with tea.”
However, another BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya said, “We don’t support such slogans.”
A group of BJP workers, carrying party flags, were heard shouting the slogan en route to the Shahid Minar ground during Shah’s day-long visit.
The slogan-shouting BJP supporters came close to Congress and Left Front members who chanted "Go Back Amit Shah" on the other flank of the Jawaharlal Nehru Road, but a showdown was averted as a large number of police personnel posted nearby intervened and took control of the situation.
As soon as a video of people raising the incendiary slogans went viral on social-media, the Kolkata Police swung in to action and started an investigation into the matter.
There has been a controversy over raising of such slogans during BJP rallies during Delhi Assembly polls and protests in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) due to allegations that they provoke violence.
At an election rally in Delhi, Union Minister Anurag Thakur had raised the slogan. On January 30, the Election Commission barred him from campaigning for the Delhi Assembly polls for 72 hours.
Six persons were also detained at Delhi's Rajiv Chowk metro station on Saturday for raising the same slogan.
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