Case against 150 unidentified people after Left students 'gherao' Mamata

A suo motu case has been registered against 150 unidentified people after Left students' activists "gheraoed" Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at an anti-CAA rally in Kolkata on January 11, sources said on Wednesday. The case includes non-bailable sections of causing damage, criminal intimidation, as well as assaulting a public servant from discharging duty, said a source at the Hare Street Police station where it was registered on Monday.

Banerjee faced protests by Left students for meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and allegedly "diluting the fight against the CAA". The top brass of the Kolkata Police was tight-lipped about the matter. After meeting Modi, Banerjee had gone to the sit-in demonstration being held by the TMC's students' wing when scores of Left students' activists reached the spot and shouted slogans seeking an explanation from her over the meeting.

Banerjee had termed the meeting a "courtesy visit" and said that she raised the issue of financial assistance that the state is yet to receive from the Centre. Modi was on a two-day visit to the city to participate in the 150 years celebrations of the Kolkata Port Trust, amid massive protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed nationwide NRC.