Park Circus violence: Police reconstruct crime scene with arrested persons

Kolkata Police reconstructed the crime scene at Park Circus where protesters attacked security forces, using four arrested individuals to help investigators piece together the events.

The Kolkata Police on Tuesday took four arrested persons to Park Circus seven-point crossing here, where protesters attacked security forces two days ago, and reconstructed the crime scene, officials said.

This is the first time that a crime scene was reconstructed in the city for an assault on security personnel, they said.

Park Circus area in central Kolkata, a Muslim-majority locality, had turned into a virtual battlefield on Sunday afternoon after protesters blocked the busy seven-point crossing and began throwing stones at police and Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel who had moved in to remove the blockade.

Police vehicles were vandalised, and at least eight security personnel were injured in the mob attack. More than 40 people were arrested in connection with the case.

As part of Tuesday's exercise, the four accused were taken to the scene to help investigators establish the sequence of events: from which lanes the crowd assembled, and from where stones were sourced and stockpiled before the assault.

Officials said such a crime scene reconstruction had previously been carried out only in cases of murder, theft, and robbery, but not for assault on security personnel.

Police have been identifying the accused through CCTV footage of the incident and have arrested the alleged mastermind behind the violence.

The police have been identifying the accused through CCTV footage of the incident and have arrested the alleged mastermind behind the violence, officials said.

The unrest had followed an anti-encroachment drive by the West Bengal government in the Tiljala area and a crackdown on the assembly of people to offer prayers on public roads.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari met senior officers of the Kolkata Police's South East Division on Monday to review the situation and visited the injured personnel.

Drawing a parallel with Jammu and Kashmir, where stone-pelting had ended, Adhikari said such a ''culture'' would no longer continue in West Bengal either, and issued a ''final warning''.