The Alipore court on Monday granted bail to four school job aspirants, two days after they were remanded in judicial custody.
The four men were a part of a group of 59 protesters — including 55 women — who were arrested on Friday from a spot close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence.
While the court had granted bail to 55 women protesters, the four men were remanded in judicial custody till Monday.
Pleading for bail on Monday, the protesters’ lawyer said there was no scope for further interrogation in this case. Police probe in the case has not moved much since last Friday when the four were arrested along with 55 others, he said.
“The police have not found any weapon on these four except pens and the place from where they were arrested in Kalighat is far away from the chief minister’s residence,” said the lawyer. “If the women protesters were granted bail, there’s no reason why the men shouldn’t be released.”
On Friday afternoon, the protesters had converged at the Hazra crossing demanding their jobs. Some of them managed to break the police cordon and march towards Mamata Banerjee’s residence.
A team of officers from Kalighat police station stopped the protesters before arresting them on several charges, including one under section 353 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that deals with deterring a public servant from discharging his duty and “unlawful assembly” under section 143 of the IPC.
Since one of the charges is non-bailable, the protesters were sent to the central lockup in Lalbazar. They were produced before Alipore court on Saturday afternoon.
On Monday, the police sought 14-day custody of the four because they “needed” to be questioned. A section of protestors countered the police claim that they posed a security threat.
“There was nothing ‘dangerous’ in our bags except a few books, a pen and documents that said that we had cleared the recruitment test,” said one of the protesters.
The court granted bail to the men with a condition that they won’t be allowed to enter the “high-security zone” under Kalighat police station.