Kolkata: The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, Tuesday approached the Calcutta High Court on four student activists associated with the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ march to the Bengal Secretariat reportedly going missing since Monday midnight.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj allowed Adhikari to file the petition.
In the petition, Adhikari claimed that even if the four students have been detained or arrested by police, that information should surface since on the basis of that their family members would be able to take appropriate legal steps.
Earlier, Tuesday morning, the LoP had alleged that the four student activists, Subhojit Ghosh, Pulokesh Pandit, Goutam Senapati and Pritam Sarkar were distributing food items to the volunteers arriving at the Howrah station for the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ and went missing after midnight.
“Neither can they be traced nor are they answering their phones. We are apprehensive that they may have been arrested or detained by the state police,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari had been alleging for quite some time that the state administration and the police had been adopting unfair means to malign the proposed march since the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ call was given in the social media to condemn the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor at state-run RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata earlier this month.
Soon after the information surfaced that Adhikari had approached the Calcutta High Court in the matter, West Bengal Police issued a statement confirming the arrest of the four student activists.
“A certain political leader has been trying to create a false narrative about four students who have apparently been missing since last night.
“The truth is, nobody is missing. The four were planning to orchestrate large-scale violence during the Nabanna Abhijan today and were involved in a conspiracy of murder and attempted murder. They have been arrested in the interest of public safety and security, and their families have been informed,” the statement from the state police read.
Earlier, the Trinamool Congress leadership had expressed doubts about whether the student activists, which the LoP was referring to were really missing or not.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at the state secretariat Nabanna in Howrah District at around 11am. She waved at the waiting media persons before entering her office.
IANS