KOLKATA: CPI(M) leader Kalatan Dasgupta was among two persons who were arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to attack the protesting junior doctors, police said on Saturday.
The arrests were made after an audio clip of a phone call was released by TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, who alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched to attack the protesting junior doctors outside the Swasthya Bhawan in Salt Lake to defame the Mamata Banerjee government in the state.
The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate lodged a suo motu case in connection with the audio clip and initiated investigations.
During the probe, a person identified as Sanjib Das, was arrested last night from the Haltu area of Kasba in south Kolkata for his involvement in the case.
Police claimed that Das was one of the two persons whose voice was heard in the audio clip.
Kalatan and another party colleague were returning home from the Left Front’s overnight sit-in demonstration at Phears Lane in central Kolkata adjacent to the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar, when they were stopped midway. The CPI(M) leader was initially detained for questioning and later arrested.
Kalatan was brought to the Electronics Complex police station soon after his arrest and will be produced before a local court along with Sanjib Das, police said.
“We have done a technical assessment of the audio clip and taken opinion from experts. Sanjib Das has already confessed that one of the voices in the audio clip belongs to him. We will seek custody for both,” said deputy commissioner of police, Bidhannagar, Anish Sarkar.
Efforts were being made to identify 'Bappa', 'Saheb' and 'Dadu' who were named in the clip, Sarkar said.
"Both the arrested would be produced before a court today, and police would seek their custody for 14 days," he said.
While being taken inside the police station, the arrested CPI(M) leader said that they are demanding justice for RG Kar medic rape and murder. He accused the police of diverting attention from the demands and claimed that it was a conspiracy against him.
CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty and Satarup Ghosh criticised the arrest of Kalatan Dasgupta and alleged that the audio clip was made using AI technology.
“It is a very immature move by the police. The state police should first take Kunal Ghosh into custody and find how he got the clip. Instead of that, police are unnecessarily harassing people who are demanding justice in the RG Kar case. We will see to the end of this,” said former Kolkata Mayor and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Bhattacharya.
He sought a CBI investigation into the matter, stating that it should be looked into how deep was the conspiracy.
Following the arrests, TMC's Ghosh claimed that the clip was "leaked" by those who were "plotting attacks on doctors".
The medics have been camping outside Swasthya Bhawan, the headquarters of the state Health Department, since Tuesday with a host of demands, including better security at state-run hospitals and the removal of top officials over the rape and murder of the doctor.
Additional forces were deployed at the protest site, and more CCTV cameras were installed, police said.