Kolkata Police have named Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien in criminal cases arising from last Thursday’s confrontation at 9 Camac Street, where civic officials and police dismantled a party billboard the municipal corporation called unauthorised. O’Brien, asked to appear at Shakespeare Sarani police station at noon on Monday, did not turn up and has questioned whether the summons is valid.
The clash on August 27 has produced three first information reports, more than a dozen arrests, a High Court petition that failed to win interim relief, and a separate legal notice from the building’s owner demanding that TMC vacate two floors. Banerjee has been directed to appear for questioning on Tuesday, September 1.
How a rooftop board became a police case?
Around 3.30 pm on Thursday, officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s advertisement department arrived at the eight-storey building that houses Banerjee’s office, accompanied by a large police contingent. Their brief was to take down an iron-mounted sign reading “All India Trinamool Congress” on the terrace facing the road. Police say the civic body had sought assistance in writing after a complaint that the structure lacked statutory clearance and posed a safety risk. Because the building also contains other offices, they argued, a political party board could not legally occupy the façade.
TMC leaders present at the site - Banerjee, O’Brien, former MLA Humayun Kabir and party functionary Baiswanar Chattopadhyay - disputed the paperwork. They said the notice was unsigned, carried no memo number and referred to a photograph that was not attached. Banerjee livestreamed from the spot, accused officers of trying to enter private premises without due process, and later alleged that women party workers had been manhandled. O’Brien said the team first left after the documents were challenged, then returned later in the afternoon with a revised order and forced its way in.
What followed on the staircase was captured on multiple phones and official cameras: pushing, shouting, and a crush of bodies as police and KMC staff tried to reach the roof. Video circulating after the incident shows O’Brien losing his footing on the stairs. Police say a sergeant’s government-issue walkie-talkie was snatched and that officers, including a woman constable, were assaulted. TMC says more than 150 personnel, some in plain clothes and without visible identification, entered the building after sunset, broke a lock and used disproportionate force to remove a single party sign.
By about 6.30 pm the board was down. KMC workers used cutting equipment on the iron frame. Thirteen people were detained that evening; a fourteenth, identified from CCTV as Taufiq, was arrested later. Those in custody were remanded to judicial custody until September 3.
All three cases were registered at Shakespeare Sarani police station on Friday. The first, lodged by KMC deputy manager Sudip Kumar Basu (also reported as Sandeep/Sudeep Kumar Bose), accuses party leaders and supporters of forming an unlawful assembly, assaulting civic and police staff, snatching municipal tools and blocking public servants from carrying out their duty.
The second, filed by Park Street sergeant Sujit Kumar Mondal, describes a mob on the staircase obstructing officers, seizing a wireless set and assaulting personnel who tried to detain a suspect. Sergeant Mondal and constable Amitabh Saha were reported injured.
The third FIR names Banerjee, O’Brien and Chattopadhyay and invokes, among other provisions, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Section 74, alleging that criminal force was used against women police officers and that threats of false cases were made.
Taken together, the charges include rioting, rioting with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant, criminal intimidation, theft of government property and use of force against a woman. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Kunal Aggarwal has said investigators are examining CCTV, livestream footage and witness statements to fix individual roles.
