Ransack of police station in city denounced by WB ministers

West Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee and Firhad Hakim on Tuesday denounced the forceful entry of outsiders into a south Kolkata police station and its ransacking by outsiders.

Chatterjee, who is the state education minister, said the incident which took place on Sunday night was unfortunate and unexpected and should not be allowed to recur as it may erode the people's respect for the administration.

Those responsible for the incident should be given the strictest punishment, he told reporters here.

Chatterjee, who is also the secretary general of the ruling Trinamool Congress, said there is no relation between such incidents and vote bank politics.

"Vote and administration are two separate things," he said to a question.

Chatterjee said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is making every effort to ensure a friendly relation between the administration and the citizens.

Asked to comment, Hakim, who is the minister of municipal affairs and urban development, said the incident at the police station was "a stray incident" by anti-socials and that law will take its own course.

He referred to lynchings in Uttar Pradesh and said the rule of law always prevailed in West Bengal under Trinamool Congress.

"The situation is far better in West Bengal," he claimed.

At least seven personnel were injured when a group of locals barged into Tollygunj police station and ransacked it after two persons were arrested for drinking in the open on Sunday night from any area under it.

The locals, mostly women family members of the two arrested, demanded that they be freed. They threw stones at the police station and ransacked the officer-in-charge's room.