Ahead of Trinamul’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day event, the CPM accused Durgapur police of working on behalf of the ruling party to ensure the rally’s success.

At the root of the accusation lies a phone call to a CPM worker on Monday allegedly from a police outpost in Durgapur to ask if she would attend the Martyrs’ Day rally in Calcutta on Thursday and how many people she planned to take with her.

“The number was identified to be that of Bidhannagar police outpost under New Township police station limits and the call was made to our party activist Surabhi Ghosh. It came at 6.21pm on Monday and her husband and CPM worker Nayan Ghosh took it, as Surabhi was busy,” a CPM leader in Durgapur said.

The caller allegedly said that Surabhi’s name was among those scheduled to attend the rally and he had called on the basis of the list.

Based on this, the CPM accused the police of working at Trinamul’s behest and lodged a complaint with New Township police. “It is surprising that policemen are acting like Trinamul workers.... This is evidence of Trinamul using the police to pressurise common people to join a political event. We demand inquiry and punishment of the cop who made the call and identification of the officer who asked the cop to do it. If action is not taken, we will move court,” said Pankaj Roy Sarkar, a CPM district secretariat member, West Burdwan.

“Police were collecting data on how many people will attend the rally in Calcutta from Durgapur. It is just a misunderstanding,” said a police officer in Durgapur.

Deputy commissioner of police (east) Abhishek Gupta said an inquiry had begun.

“We are not in such bad shape that we have to ask CPM workers to join our rally. The police may be collecting details of people going to the rally from Durgapur,” said Rama Prasad Haldar, Trinamul leader and borough chairman in Durgapur.