KOLKATA: At least four people were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly assaulting a police officer and setting a police vehicle on fire in Kolkata during the BJP's rally, an official said.
The arrests were made during night-long raids in Beliaghata, Topsia and Bowbazar areas, he said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Debajit Chattopadhyay was chased and assaulted with sticks by some people in the Bowbazar area during the BJP's 'March to Nabanna' rally on Tuesday.
A police vehicle was also torched near the Kolkata Police headquarters Lalbazar.
"The raids are still going on," said an officer of Kolkata Police on Wednesday afternoon. The four arrested persons were identified from video clips of the two incidents," he said.
They have been booked under sections dealing with attempt to murder, destruction of government property and preventing public servant from performing duty, the officer said.
Chattopadhyay suffered multiple fractures and is at present undergoing treatment at a hospital, he said.
BJP's national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the attacks were the handwork of TMC supporters who got into the rally.
"Our activists are being framed and false charges slapped against them," he alleged.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra said what if the West Bengal government follows the Uttar Pradesh "model" and "send bulldozers to homes of BJP workers who destroyed public property".
The BJP on Wednesday alleged that West Bengal has become a "lawless" and "bankrupt" state under the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led government.
A day after BJP workers and police clashed after cops prevented them from marching towards the secretariat in the state capital during their protests, the party hit out at Banerjee for inflicting "police torture" on its members to suppress their voice.
The BJP had launched a protest march against the ruling Trinamool Congress' alleged corrupt practises.
Former Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed Banerjee, saying she speaks of saving democracy outside the state while crossing all limits to curb people's democratic and civil rights inside Bengal.
Suggesting that intra-party rivalry within the TMC may be behind the use of force against BJP members, he said the chief minister's conduct has been "contrary" to her political evolution, noting her rise from the grassroots and long struggle against the earlier Left rule.
Is the fight for succession going on in the TMC, he asked, hinting about the reported differences between the chief minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee without naming the second most powerful leader in the regional party.
She has now left the Left behind in inflicting atrocities and brutalities on the BJP, he claimed, asserting that the TMC cannot stop his party's march in the state.
"Under Mamata Banerjee West Bengal has become a lawless and bankrupt state," Prasad said.
Parts of Kolkata and Howrah district turned into a battlefield on Tuesday as BJP supporters clashed with the police while trying to get past barricades erected to prevent them from marching towards the West Bengal secretariat 'Nabanna'.
While the BJP alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government does not want to give space to opposition parties, the TMC described the saffron camp workers as "hooligans".
At the BJP press conference, Prasad also took aim at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the spree of firing in Begusarai on Tuesday and the comment of the state agriculture minister that his department was full of "thieves" and he was their "sardaar" (leader).
"What has happened to you Nitish Kumar ji in the company of your new friends," the Patna Sahib MP said.
Kumar had recently broken his party Janata Dal (United) ties with the BJP and joined hands the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Prasad alleged that the RJD's foundation is based on "mafia, corrupt people and corruption" and wondered how long the state government will last.