Three arrested for protest against powercut in Baguiati

Express News Service Posted: Jun 18, 2008 at 0309 hrs
Kolkata, June 17 Three elderly persons were arrested from a housing complex in Baguiati for allegedly protesting against powercuts. The family of the arrested alleged that the police swooped the housing complex in the dead of the night and misbehaved with the family members.

Dipak Burman, secretary of Anupama Housing, S B Chakraborty and Debu Pal were arrested on Monday night. The three were taken to the Baguiati police station where they were kept throughout the night. They were later produced in Barasat court.

According to Dipti Burman, wife of Dipak Burman, “Due to frequent powercuts, we have been facing shortage of water. On Monday night, there was a powercut. We requested the State Electricity Board (SEB) office nearby to restore the power but our requests fell on deaf ears. There was a minor altercation after which we returned to our house.”

She added that around 1:30 am, about 10 policemen came to her house to arrest her husband. “We were shocked to see the policemen. They forced their way into our house and arrested my husband.”

The police said the SEB officials had filed a complaint against the three persons alleging that they had attacked the SEB workers.

The police are tight-lipped about the entire incident. Senior police officials said that they were not aware of any such incident. Officials of the Baguiati police station refused to comment.