KOLKATA, SEP 2 :  Traffic in major parts of Central Kolkata came to a standstill on Monday due to a march to Lalbazar or police headquarters by striking government medics who were demanding the resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, accusing him of tampering with evidence in the alleged rape and murder of their 31-year-old lady colleague at RG Kar hospital on August 9.

The medics, whose indefinite strike at the government hospitals entered the 25th day on Monday, protested in major parts of north and central Kolkata, and squatted on the busy Phears Lane, some 650 metres from the police headquarters.

The medics had planned to lead a 20-member delegation to Lalbazar and call on Goyal personally to handover a memorandum at the crossing of Bentict Street and BB Ganguly Street but were not allowed to do so.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central, Indira Mukherjee said, “Police cannot allow them to go beyond Phears Lane due to prohibition orders.”

The medics carried red roses and a symbolic spine to hand over to the police chief along with the memorandum of demands.

Dr Aniket, one of the protesters, said that the symbolic spine meant that police should stand erect as a neutral force, without bias and hold the rule of law.

Lalbazar on Monday turned into a veritable fortress as the police erected pickets on roads leading to the Kolkata Police headquarters.
Similar protective walls were erected on August 27 around the Nabanna, the secretariat of the West Bengal government, in Howrah during a massive student protest march, sources added.

A report from New Delhi said the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Calcutta High Court order of Saturday granting interim bail to one of the conveners of the West Bengal Chhatra Samaj, which sponsored the Nabanna Avijan on August 27.

The West Bengal government had moved apex court to challenge the High Court order granting interim bail to the student leader.

A report from Cooch Behar in north Bengal said that clashes took place between West Bengal Police and BJP supporters, led by former Union Minister Nishit Pramanik, who proposed to lay siege to the district magistrate’s office demanding justice in the medic murder.
Sources said that the police used water cannons and lathicharge on the protesting BJP supporters.
The BJP also started a sit-in demonstration in front of the district magistrate office at Alipur in the city after being stopped from going to the DM office. The BJP rally was led by former MP Locket Chatterjee and other senior women leaders.(UNI)