Congress leaders Atanu Das, Ashutosh Chattopadhyay and Pradip Prasad were granted bail by an Alipore court on Monday in the case related to the alleged burning of a photograph of Bageshwar Baba.
Congress leaders get relief from court
Atanu Das, general secretary of the Kolkata district Congress, was arrested on Thursday night for allegedly burning the photograph during a protest outside Bhawanipur police station. A court had earlier remanded him to four days of police custody.
Court had ordered four days custody
On Monday, the Alipore court granted him bail. The court also granted bail to Congress leaders Ashutosh Chattopadhyay and Pradip Prasad in the same case.
The controversy erupted after protests against remarks made by Bageshwar Baba, whose real name is Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, over the consumption of non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja.
Congress leaders denied burning the photograph
Congress leaders had earlier denied personally burning the photograph. Appearing at Bhawanipur police station on Sunday, Ashutosh and Pradip claimed that they were only participating in the protest and were not involved in burning the photograph.
Leaders explained what happened during protest
They said some party workers resumed the protest after a media channel requested footage of the demonstration, and the photograph was allegedly burned during that later protest.
BJP MLA sharply criticised Congress leaders
The Congress leaders claimed that they were dragged into the incident but had not participated in burning the photograph.
BJP MLA Ritesh Tiwari criticised their explanation and accused the Congress of burning the photograph of a Hindu saint to gain media attention. After the court granted bail on Monday, the Congress leaders described the development as a “victory of truth”.
