Kolkata Police faces Calcutta HC’s ire for halting construction outside state Secretariat security zone

Kolkata, Feb 25 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Kolkata Police for unnecessarily halting private construction outside the security zone earmarked for the state Secretariat Nabanna at Mandirtala in the adjoining Howrah district.

After the city police halted private construction at a spot outside the 100-metre radius security zone for Nabanna, the individual concerned approached the high court, challenging the police action.

The matter came up for hearing on Monday and during the hearing, a bench of Justice Kausik Chanda questioned the authority of the city police in unnecessarily halting that construction outside the designated security zone of the state Secretariat.

It also sought a report from the city Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma on the matter.

During the hearing, Justice Chanda even went to the extent of raising the question of whether the people of West Bengal were residing in a police state. He also directed the police administration to furnish the notification under which the security zone around the state Secretariat is designated.

The bench also observed that the Calcutta High Court was conscious of the security aspect of the state secretariat but the police did not seem to be conscious of it. He also observed that the city Police Commissioner should explain how the police could interfere unnecessarily in a matter of private construction outside the security zone.

In the recent past, both Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police have faced the ire of different benches of the Calcutta High Court for their alleged excesses in the names of security or maintenance of law & order. In most cases, such criticism from the court was because of the denial of police permissions for public rallies or public meetings proposed by the opposition parties in the state.

In most such cases, the Calcutta High Court had overturned the denial of permission by permission. The most recent such case related to the denial of police permission for a proposed public meeting by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at Burdwan in East Burdwan district earlier this month.

–IANS

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