Junior doctors had planned to take pick-up trucks to some of the prominent Durga Puja pandals in the city and chant slogans on Mahasashthi.

Thwarted by police, the protesters started marching to the pandals from the Esplanade protest site.

Earlier in the afternoon, some protesters went to the Maddox Square puja and shouted slogans. They held placards demanding justice for the RG Kar victim. They stood inside the pandal but in one corner, while pandal-hoppers kept trooping in from other sides.

“A group of about 25 women and men started singing around 4pm. A little later, they started shouting slogans. As we realised that they were protesting, we went andspoke to them. We told them that they have our support but this is not a site to protest.This protest cannot be at the cost of rituals,” saidAnimesh Chatterjee, joint secretary of Maddox Square Durgotsab.

Chatterjee said the organisers told the protestersthat the rituals wouldbegin between 4.45pm and 5pm. The protesters leftthe pandal at 5.05pm, said Chatterjee.

Among the pandals that the junior doctors had planned to visit in pick-up trucks were Suruchi Sangha, Mudiali, Tridhara, Deshapriya Park, Chetla Agrani and Ballygunge Cultural, all of which are in south Calcutta.

When the police did not allow the junior doctors to go to the pandals in pick-up trucks, they started walking in a rally. But the police blocked the rally near the American Center on Chowringhee Road.

A police officer told the junior doctors, and others marching with them, that it was not possible to allow them to march during Puja.

Junior doctors and the police got involved in altercations in multiple places on Wednesday.

The first face-off was opposite E-mall in Chandni Chowk where the police stopped three pick-up trucks that were on their way to the site at Esplanade where seven doctors are on a fast unto death.

Protesters were supposed to set off for puja pandals on those trucks.

The junior doctors alleged that the police had stopped the trucks only because theywere to ferry the medics to the pandals.

“The police said they stopped the pick-up trucks since those were goods vehicles, but we could see many similar goods vehicles on the road. Their real intent was to stop us,” a junior doctor said in front of E-mall.

The police denied the allegation. Officers were heard explaining to the juniordoctors that Puja traffic would go haywire if they organised the rally.

“You do not have the permission for any rally. Please think how the traffic will suffer. If you go to a place and park the vans and then speak over the microphone, it will throw traffic and pedestrian movement out of gear. Please go and see how many people are on the streets,” a police officer was heard telling the junior doctors.

About 100 junior doctors and others, who had assembled at the Esplanade protest site, ran towards the spot where the trucks were stopped by the police.

A scuffle ensued between the police and the junior doctors. The protesters managed to push away the cops and take the trucks to Esplanade.

As the two sides argued and the scuffle continued, traffic along both flanks of CR Avenue was hit severely. A long queue of vehicles formed on CR Avenue.

The scuffle and arguments blocked the Shyambazar-bound flank of CR Avenue for over 20 minutes in the afternoon.

Later in the evening, a group of protesters were marching to the Tridhara Sammilani pandal. The police detained some of the protesters, in response to which others squatted outside thecity police headquarters in Lalbazar.