A group of Calcuttans who had driven to Delhi to participate in the Kisan Parade on Republic Day have alleged the police set up “selective barricades” on the designated routes to “divert” marchers towards the Red Fort.

The Calcuttans saw police barricades in at least two places that they said were part of the scheduled routes for the tractor rally: under a footbridge near the Majnu Ka Tilla gurdwara and near Nangloi Chowk in west Delhi, some 3km from the Tikri border.

“The police stopped the marchers from proceeding along the designated routes. This infuriated many participants, some of whom then headed towards the Red Fort,” said Ranjit Singh, 51.

“The rallies had thousands of participants, and those at the tail were confused about the directions. In hindsight, it seems to have been a ploy by the police to instigate chaos and violence.”

Ranjit and his group of 19 had left Calcutta in four cars on January 24 and reached Singhu on Tuesday morning. They returned to Calcutta on Friday evening.

Around noon on Republic Day, a rally from the Singhu border that the group was part of reached the Majnu Ka Tilla gurdwara only to be met with police barricades. The rally had hundreds of tractors and thousands of marchers, among them elderly men and women, Ranjit said. The Calcuttans were in their cars at the rear of the march.

“The marchers asked the police why the route had been barricaded. There was a heated argument that led to a brawl. Some of the marchers at the head of the rally broke through the barricade and headed towards the Red Fort, around 6km from the gurdwara,” Ranjit said.

He spoke of “a massive police deployment” on a footbridge at the spot and the road below. “As soon as the clash started, the cops started firing smoke canisters from the bridge,” Ranjit said.

The alleged police assault prompted the members of the Calcutta contingent to leave the site and join another rally, coming from the Tikri border.

A large police team met the rally near Nangloi Chowk in west Delhi.

“The marchers were supposed to take a U-turn from the site and head back towards the Tikri border. But the police set up barricades before they could take the U-turn,” said Inderdeep Singh, 30, resident of Deodar Street in Ballygunge.

“The angry marchers broke the barricades. Within minutes, the police came charging in.”

A short clip shared by Ranjit, taken apparently from a flyover at Nangloi Chowk, shows thousands of marchers on the road below, some on tractors, cars or two-wheelers and some walking barefoot. A large number of Tricolours are seen fluttering.

The high-decibel slogans against the Narendra Modi government are halted by scores of marauding policemen in riot gear, who are seen charging in and wielding their batons to disperse the protesters.

The Calcuttans returned to the Singhu border in the evening.

Internet connectivity was suspended at most places in Delhi for most of the day. But word spread soon that television and social media were highlighting the Red Fort breach and the violence rather than the largely peaceful movement.

“Many of the farmers were bruised. But they were more hurt by the attempts to malign the movement. They also rued the role of the agents the government had planted to discredit the campaign,” Ranjit said.

While accepting moral responsibility and regretting the violence and the breach of the Red Fort, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha — under whose banner the tractor rally was held — has accused the Modi-Shah duopoly of orchestrating the violence through their agents to defame the movement.

Members of the Calcutta group said they would take back memories of the goodwill and friendship they witnessed among the protesters rather than those of the sporadic violence.

They said they had received a warm welcome at the Singhu border, with the farmers elated at receiving moral support from “Bangaal”.

“We spent close to 48 hours at the Singhu border. We saw hundreds of residents — auto drivers, labourers and street dwellers — eating at the langars. Nobody who came to Singhu went back hungry,” said Ravi Saha, another member of the Calcutta group.

An octogenarian woman from Punjab won his heart in particular. “She had been camping at Singhu for days. Every day, she would prepare rotis for hundreds of people,” Saha, a trader in fans and their spare parts, said.

He said the woman told him: “My time is nearly up, but I cannot desert the fight for the future.”