Signboard row: Mamata Banerjee seeks release of 13 arrested

Kolkata: A day after three FIRs were filed against Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien and others and 13 people were arrested in connection with the ruckus during the dismantling of an alleged illegal signboard at Trinamool office on Camac Street, former CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday demanded that all those arrested be released immediately.

The 13 arrested persons have been remanded to police custody till September 3. Speaking about the Camac Street incident, Banerjee asked, "What happened at Camac Street? Why did officials arrive with a gas cutter? What exactly were they planning to do? Were they trying to break into the premises? Were they trying to take things away?" Slamming the police, Banerjee questioned why people were arrested when they went to Camac Street. "Cases should instead be filed over the manner in which the operation was conducted. You arrived with a gas cutter, but where was the proper notice? Why could you not show the notice?" she asked. Addressing a programme in Kolkata, the former CM asserted that the Trinamool Congress would soon return to power. She attacked the BJP government in Bengal and at the Centre, state police, and the CM, without naming him directly. "Trinamool Congress will return to power very soon. I believe the history of this electoral theft will be rewritten," Banerjee said, adding that the BJP would also lose power at the Centre.

"The police personnel who are committing atrocities at someone else's instruction should remember that the umbrella of protection will not remain over anybody's head forever... If there is so much faith in the Bengal Police, why was such a massive deployment of central forces required? I believe this itself demonstrates a lack of confidence in the Bengal Police. We ran governments without depending on central forces in this manner," Banerjee said, criticising police officials.


Meanwhile, the Calcutta HC on Friday refused to pass any interim order on a petition filed by the Trinamool in connection with the removal of an alleged illegal billboard from the roof of Abhishek Banerjee's office on Thursday.