An altercation between a Trinamul Congress councillor’s brother with a youth, who is close to the husband of an Independent councillor from an adjoining ward in central Calcutta, snowballed into a fight involving hundreds of people on Colootola Street on Friday evening.
Allegations have surfaced that the Trinamool councillor, whose brother was allegedly slapped, led the mob against the youth.
Seven persons have been arrested in connection with the violence till Saturday evening, said deputy commissioner (central) Rupesh Kumar. They were produced before a court on Saturday and have been remanded in police custody till April 18.
Several, including a Class IX student, have been injured in the violence. “My brother was going to buy fruits when he was caught in the middle,” alleged the boy’s elder brother. The boy’s brother added that the violence happened in front of a few police officers who were outnumbered.
Mohammad Jasimuddin, Trinamul’s councillor of Ward 39, refuted the charges. He said he had been instigated by the other side for slapping his brother.
The incident happened on Friday evening when Mohammad Miraj, one of the residents of Haren Bari Lane, was taking his mother to a hospital when his car got stuck in a traffic jam. “I was going to the hospital with my mother for her dialysis around 4pm on Friday. There was a traffic jam. A biker banged on the boot of my car and asked me to speed up. When I told him I was helpless because of the jam, he started abusing me.”
He further alleged that the biker started dropping names and said was the brother of Ward 39 councillor, Mohammad Jasimuddin.
Miraj allegedly slapped Jasimuddin’s brother before leaving the spot, a local resident said.
“Within a few minutes, I received a call from Jasimuddin bhai shouting at me for having slapped his brother. I told him that I had lost calm and was ready to apologise but he kept on threatening me,” Miraj said.
According to Irfan Ali Taj, whose wife is an Independent councillor of Ward 43, Jasimuddin and his supporters had barged into Colootola Street and started attacking people at random. Taj said he went to the spot to pacify the situation. “But by then Jasimuddin bhai and his men had already beaten up many of them.”
Sources said there was a rivalry between Jasimuddin and Miraj as the latter had been vocal against Jasimuddin and was close to Taj.