Police complaint against BJP's Kailash Vijayvargiya, 3 others

Kolkata, Dec 9: The West Bengal Police has filed a suo motu complaint against state BJP president Dilip Ghosh and three other party leaders for conducting a public meeting in Coochbehar district on Friday without requisite permission, police said.

Besides Ghosh, BJP state-in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya, national secretary Rahul Sinha and general secretary Raju Banerjee have been named in the complaint registered on Saturday, a senior officer of the district police said on Sunday.

"We have registered a suo motu case against four BJP leaders for holding the rally without proper permission from the administration. We have started taking necessary action against them," he said.

The BJP leaders have been booked under different sections of the IPC and the Police Act, he said.

Ghosh, along with other party leaders, addressed the rally on a private land in Jhinaidanga in Coochbehar district after BJP's rath yatra was put on hold, the officer said, quoting the complaint.

When contacted, the state BJP chief said he went to the stage to thank the people, who had gathered at the venue in large numbers.

"Since a big crowd had already arrived at the venue, I had gone to the dais to thank them for coming. In fact, I had told them that we will not be addressing the rally.

"This shows their (police) intention. If they continue to act like this, it will be clear how police works here in the state," Ghosh said, adding other party leaders named in the complaint were not present on the dais.

BJP President Amit Shah was to kickstart the campaign titled 'Save Democracy Rally' from Coochbehar district on Friday, from Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district on December 9, and from Tarapith temple in Birbhum district on December 14.

The rath yatras were scheduled to cover all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal.

A single bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty of the Calcutta High Court had on Thursday refused permission to the party to hold the yatra.

Subsequently, the BJP moved the division bench of the court, which modified the earlier order and directed the state chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police to sit with three BJP leaders by December 12 and take a decision on the matter by December 14.

The division bench of Justices Biswanath Somadder and A Mukherjee also criticised the state government for not responding to BJP's letters for permission to hold three rath yatras in the state.

PTI