Bengal Police issue summons to agitating teachers over May 15 clashes

Kolkata, May 18 (PTI) Police have issued summons to some teachers asking them to appear before a police station in connection with an investigation into the clashes that broke out in and around Bikash Bhavan, the state Education Department headquarters in Salt Lake, on May 15, an officer said on Sunday.

School teachers, who lost their jobs following a recent Supreme Court verdict, are protesting outside Bikash Bhavan since Thursday.

The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate in its summons issued to teachers on May 16 alleged that they (teachers) had damaged government property, obstructed public servants from executing their lawful duty and threatening public servants from doing their duty and asked them to appear before the investigating officer at the Bidhannagar North Police station on Wednesday, he said.

The police have registered an FIR at the Bidhannagar North Police Station against some specific teachers who were spotted in various video footage of Thursday's clashes with the police personnel, the officer said.

In the FIR, the police have included Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) sections dealing with disobedience to a lawfully promulgated order by a public servant, criminal trespass and house trespass, for rioting, including the offence of wrongful restraint, he said.

"...during the course of the investigation, it is revealed that you damaged government property and obstructed the public servant from his lawful duty and threatened the public servant from doing their duty, and there are also reasonable grounds to question you to ascertain facts and circumstances from you in relation to the present investigation. Hence, you are directed to appear before me at 11 am on May 21 at the Bidhannagar North Police Station," the summons said.

West Bengal Police on Friday said 19 of its personnel were injured, one of them seriously, during clashes with agitating school teachers outside the state education department headquarters in Salt Lake and a suo motu case had been lodged against persons identified as instigators of the unrest.

Talking about the summons to appear before the IO in this case, one of the agitating teachers criticised the move and described it to be an attempt by the government to "intimidate them" to fizzle out their protest.

"They are doing all these to intimidate us. But we are not scared and will not stop our protest. They (the state government) did all the corruption, and now the police are issuing summons to us. We are staging protests not to fight but to get justice. The government assured us of all sorts of help, but they filed for a review petition at the Supreme Court without our knowledge," one of the agitating teachers said.

Another teacher said, "Teachers were injured. It's not the police. One of my colleagues lost an eye, while a few others were badly injured because of the lathi charge by the police. Can you tell us how many policemen were injured on Thursday? We tried to resist when the police were lathicharging us." Clashes broke out between agitating school teachers and police in and around the Bikas Bhavan when the agitating teachers broke the barricade and rushed inside the premises on May 15.

Meanwhile, school teachers, who lost their jobs following a recent Supreme Court verdict, continued their protest for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday outside the West Bengal Education Department headquarters in Salt Lake.

The protesting teachers are demanding that the state government take legal and administrative measures to reinstate them in their jobs with immediate effect. PTI