In protest of the RG Kar incident and demanding bail for youth leader Koltan Dasgupta, rallies are being organized across the state. On Wednesday, a protest meeting in Chopra saw Minakshi Mukherjee, the state secretary of DYFI, as the keynote speaker.
Addressing the gathering, Mukherjee said, “Chopra is a name that resonates with attacks not just on our workers but also on ordinary citizens. Criminal gangs involved in drug and weapon smuggling and human trafficking retaliate against people who dare to protest. What started in Chopra is now happening across the state. The people of Chopra must rise, take to the streets, and resist. They must stand their ground.”
Mukherjee continued, “They killed Mansur. We’ve heard of machines like JCB, but in Chopra, there are people named JCB. On the day Mansur was murdered, a bullet from an automatic rifle shot him from a rooftop. How did the rifle get there? Was it licensed? If you raise your voice, you’ll be framed in a marijuana case. Does the police have bags of marijuana stored? If you weren’t here today, and I held a meeting in an empty field, they would’ve arrested me for selling drugs. The police don’t target criminals, they target protestors.”
She also commented on the recent tragedy at the hospital: “We go to hospitals to save lives, but a medical student was raped and murdered there. In a controlled environment, how did a civic volunteer roam around with headphones at 3 AM? Who allowed him there? JCB and RG Kar are no different.”
Mukherjee urged people to march to Kolkata on September 26, adding, “The day Chopra takes over Kolkata, the government will have to listen.”
The protest, held at Chopra’s Nandigach Bazaar and Chopra Vidrohi More, also featured speeches from leaders like Apurba Pramanik, Supriti Ghosh Majumdar, and Indrajit Barman, all demanding justice for Tilottama and the release of youth leader Koltan Dasgupta.
