Six activists of CPI(M) and its youth wing SFI, including two women, were on Monday arrested for allegedly assaulting West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra two weeks back in the national capital and granted bail soon after by a Delhi court.
Those arrested were Students Federation of India (SFI) General Secretary Ritabrata Bandhopadhyay, Delhi CPI(M) Secretary P M S Grewal, Delhi State Committee member Nathu Prasad, Sunand and women activists Asha Sharma and Anju Jha.
Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain granted bail to them on a personal bond of Rs 5,000 each with a surety of like amount after they were produced in court soon after their arrest.
They were arrested for offences under section 353 (assault), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 143 and 149 (relating unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code.
“They were arrested after analysing the video footage related to the protest at Yojna Bhavan housing Planning Commission on Parliament Street on April 9,” a senior police official said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Mitra had gone to Planning Commission office to discuss the state’s annual plan when they were ‘gheraoed’ by a group of angry SFI activists protesting the death of one of their colleagues in Kolkata early this month, the police said.
The 65—year—old Finance Minister was manhandled while trying to enter the Yojna Bhawan building and a woman protester thumped him twice on his chest and his kurta got torn in the melee, it said.
He was later put under medical observation at AIIMS and Ms. Banerjee was administered oxygen after she became ill.
The incident sparked a controversy with Trinamool Congress staging violent protests in Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal demanding stringent punishment against protesters.
