Trinamul Congress youth leader Babun Banerjee, who allegedly led a mob that went on the rampage and attacked residents in a Behala pocket in southwest Kolkata on Tuesday night, was arrested with six others from a hideout in Howrah on Sunday morning, police said.
Allegations had surfaced that Banerjee, a resident of Unchu Danga in Behala, had instigated the attack in Charaktala to gain control of the area.
Several vehicles parked on roads were damaged and at least three persons, including a woman, were beaten up on Tuesday night. Two of them needed stitches on their head.
Banerjee’s arrest takes the number of people taken into custody in connection with the attack to 25 on Sunday.
Banerjee told TV reporters while he was being produced in court that he had been framed.
“I was not present at the spot. My brother was there and I had gone there only to rescue him. I am being framed. I did not flee home either. I had only gone to visit the Chandaneswar temple (in Odisha),” he said.
“Some people, who used me in 2021, are framing me as their purpose has been served.”
The accused have been charged under the IPC sections related to rioting, causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons and criminal conspiracy.
The police said Banerjee had been spotted in his neighbourhood till Wednesday morning. He apparently fled later in the day and switched off his cellphone, making it difficult for the cops to track him down.
“Babun Banerjee and his associates were not using their phones. Their phones were mostly switched off. And whenever they turned their phones on, they kept changing their SIM cards to try and throw us off their scent,” said an officer at Lalbazar.
The police said they found out during investigation that Banerjee and others took shelter somewhere near the airport after leaving Behala on Wednesday afternoon. The same night they went to Barasat and left for Balasore in Odisha the next morning.
“They changed vehicles when they left Bengal,” the investigator said.
“After spending a day in Odisha, they went to Digha in East Midnapore, where they stayed in a guest house, and from there to Kharagpur, in Paschim Medinipur. They were frequently changing their locations and SIM cards.”
On Saturday evening, they reached the house of a friend of Banerjee in Howrah’s Joypur. “They were rounded up from the house on Sunday morning,” the officer said.
The lawyer representing Banerjee alleged in the court that he had been tortured in police custody and moved a prayer against officers of Behala police station.
The court sent Banerjee and others to police remand till April 20 and ruled that the police would have to question Banerjee in front of his lawyer. The police will also have to produce a medical report of the accused daily.