Bengal: March to SSC office cancelled after police detains unemployed teachers forum's convenor (Lead)

Kolkata, Aug 18 (IANS) The proposed march to the School Service Commission's (SSC) office in Kolkata's Salt Lake area by members of the unemployed qualified teachers' forum could not be held on Monday, following the detention of its convenor, Suman Biswas, by the police earlier in the day.

Biswas had given a call for a march to the SSC office on Monday, to demand placement of teachers who lost their jobs to the SSC recruitment scam and fresh jobs to unemployed but qualified youths in the state.

Biswas wrote on social media that the SSC Bhaban march will be held on August 18. He also emailed the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate to this effect. The police, however, did not give them permission to organise the march.

On Sunday, the police said that the organisers of the march were planning to launch a violent movement and use petrol bombs at the police.

On Monday morning, officers of the Chandannagar Police Commissionerate detained Biswas from Adisaptagram station in Hooghly district when he was on his way to Kolkata to lead the march.

The police of Chinsurah Police Station searched the house of Biswas in the Bandel area of the Hooghly district early on Monday morning. The family alleged that the police were deployed in front of their house from early morning. However, Biswas left the house much earlier, fearing arrest.

Later, he was detained at Adisaptagram station.

Suman's brother, Sanjay Biswas, told media persons, "I just got the news that my elder brother was going from Adisaptagram station to the protest site in Kolkata. The police came and detained him there. He was not even allowed to say anything. He was not even told which police station he was taken to."

The police, however, released Biswas on Monday evening, and no case was lodged against him.

The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate on Sunday claimed that a violent movement was planned in Kolkata today by the members of the organisation. The police said it has received an audio clip of a phone conversation between two job-seekers, which revealed that in the name of organising a march to the SSC office, the participants want to create unrest by throwing petrol bombs and socket bombs at the police.

Bidhannagar Police later released the audio clip and said the persons have been identified and actions will be taken against them.

On Monday, Murshidabad police arrested a person named Rezaul Karim from the Jalangi area of Murshidabad district, who was identified as one of the persons in the audio clip.

The police received a lot of flak for detaining Biswas and arresting Rezaul Karim. At a Chief Judicial Court in the Bidhannagar area, the police were pulled up and the judge granted bail to Karim after the police failed to book him under the relevant sections.

--IANS

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