Kolkata Police, who came under fire for attacking protesting teachers with batons, clarified on Thursday that rumours are being spread about the authenticity of the videos posted by them of the unrest on social media yesterday.
| Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
Kolkata Police, who came under fire for attacking protesting teachers with batons, clarified on Thursday (April 10, 2025) that rumours are being spread about the authenticity of the videos posted by them of the unrest on social media yesterday.
“Some unscrupulous individuals are spreading misinformation that videos posted by Kolkata Police do not pertain to yesterday’s incident,” Kolkata Police wrote on X on Thursday.
Sharing videos allegedly from the protest at the office of the District Inspector of Schools in South Kolkata’s Kasba, Kolkata Police said a protestor was seen calling to “burn down the place with petrol”.
This comes after questions were raised on the Kolkata Police’s decision to attack protesting teachers on Wednesday, when visuals surfaced of uniformed police personnel kicking, pushing, and beating protestors with batons to disperse the crowd.
According to police sources, on Thursday, a senior police officer was asked by the Kolkata Police Commissioner to explain the circumstances leading to the use of force on protesters.
For context, aggrieved teachers had organised a protest at the office of the District Inspector of Schools in Kasba against the cancellation of job appointments of over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff recruited by the West Bengal School Service Commission, over fraudulent hiring practices in 2016.
While two protestors were allegedly hospitalised over injuries sustained in their clash with the police, Divisional Commissioner (South Suburban Division) Bidisha Kalita Dasgupta said during the clash that protestors broke barricades and gates and that several police personnel were injured in the unrest. She had added that the police will take legal action over this.
However, hours after the incident at a press event at the State Secretariat, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma said the clash was “undesirable” and that the police were “compelled to take certain action when they were attacked”.
“We will see the footage of the incident, and we will file a report. The visuals shown on TV are only one part of the picture. Why police were forced to take such action needs to be investigated,” Mr. Verma said on Wednesday, adding that four male and two female police personnel were injured.
Additionally, Kolkata Police also wrote on social media on Wednesday that “police were compelled to use mild force” to disperse an unruly mob who they claimed had launched an “unprovoked and violent attack” on their personnel.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said on Wednesday that the police personnel seen physically attacking protestors should be suspended.
On Thursday, Trinamool Congress Minister Firhad Hakim said that ‘vandalism and violent protesting’ would hinder the aggrieved teachers’ path to justice and that they should trust the State government’s attempts to appeal for a review petition at the Supreme Court.
“Protesting, vandalising and breaking into the Education Department’s office will only harm you. The police will allow you inside the Education Department’s office and let you tear up the files… then it will be said in court that the evidence was destroyed,” Mr. Hakim said, addressing the protesting teachers.
Published – April 10, 2025 09:01 pm IST