Police have arrested two more people in connection with the alleged violence and vandalism during the NEET protest rally at Dharmatala, taking the total number of arrests to 16. The latest arrests were made on Monday morning from the Garden Reach and Park Circus areas, following 14 arrests made until Sunday.
As part of the investigation, Kolkata Police on Monday brought five of the accused to Dorina Crossing in Dharmatala to reconstruct the sequence of events. The accused were seen walking barefoot alongside police officers during the crime scene reconstruction.
According to police sources, one of the newly arrested suspects has been identified as Wakar Azam (35), who was apprehended from the Karaya area of Park Circus. The other accused, Javed Akhtar (32), a resident of the Nadial police station area near Garden Reach, was also arrested. Police allege that both were involved in the alleged unrest and vandalism that took place during Friday's protest.
Among those taken to the reconstruction site was Mohammad Afroz, whose name had earlier been mentioned by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in the State Assembly in connection with the incident. Four other accused were also brought to the location as investigators recreated the events.
The Chief Minister has alleged that the violence during the Dharmatala protest was "pre-planned" and claimed that at least 70 individuals identified by police were neither students nor members of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and had no connection with the NEET protest movement. He had also publicly named five alleged "notorious criminals" in the Assembly, all of whom have since been arrested.
The state government has invoked the recently enacted Anti-Goonda Act in connection with the case. Addressing the Assembly, the Chief Minister had warned of stringent action against those responsible, following which police intensified their crackdown.
The protest march, organised on Friday by the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and other Left student organisations, along with a separate gathering called by the CJP, was held to protest the alleged NEET question paper leak and to demand the resignation of the Union Education Minister.
Police have alleged that sections of the crowd assaulted journalists, hurled shoes and bottles, and attempted to attack police personnel. A total of seven FIRs have been registered across Hare Street and Entally police stations, and the investigation and search operations are continuing.
