KOLKATA: A CPM youth wing leader who is also a member of the party’s Kolkata district committee, Kalatan Dasgupta, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to attack the sit-in demonstration of junior doctors, who are demanding justice for the rape and murder of a medic of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.The police move came in the wake of Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh making an audio clip public on Friday and alleging that a conspiracy was on to attack the demonstration site and derail the protest outside Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department headquarters in Salt Lake.The Bidhannagar police commissionerate lodged a suo motu case and initiated investigations. A person identified as Sanjib Das was arrested on Friday night from Haltu area of Kasba in south Kolkata. The police claimed that Das was one of the two persons whose voice was heard in the clip.When Kalatan and another party colleague were returning home on Saturday from the Left Front’s overnight sit-in demonstration at Phears Lane in central Kolkata adjacent to the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar, they were stopped midway and he was initially detained and later arrested.“We have done a technical assessment of the audio clip and taken opinion of experts. Sanjib Das has already confessed that one of the voices in the audio clip belongs to him,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bidhannagar, Anish Sarkar.While being taken to the police station, Kalatan said he demanded justice in the RG Kar case, but the police action was aimed at diverting the attention of the protesters. He alleged conspiracy against him.CPM leaders Sujan Chakraborty and Satarup Ghosh criticised the arrest of Kalatan, alleging that the audio clip was made using AI technology.“It is a very immature move. The police should first take Kunal Ghosh into custody and find how he got the clip. Instead, the police are harassing people who are demanding justice in the RG Kar case,” said former Kolkata mayor and CPM Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Bhattacharya.The protesting junior doctors have been continuing their ‘cease work’ for the past 34 days and outside Swasthya Bhavan for the last four days with a host of demands. These include a security revamp of state-run hospitals, removal of a set of senior health department officials and resignation of Kolkata Police chief in the RG Kar case.
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