Kolkata Police issues clarification over baton charge on protesting teachers

Kolkata Police clarifies authenticity of protest videos amid controversy over use of force on teachers.

Kolkata Police, who came under fire for attacking protesting teachers with batons, clarified on Thursday (April 10, 2025) that rumours are being spread about the authenticity of the videos posted by them of the unrest on social media yesterday. 

“Some unscrupulous individuals are spreading misinformation that videos posted by Kolkata Police do not pertain to yesterday’s incident,” Kolkata Police wrote on X on Thursday.

Sharing videos allegedly from the protest at the office of the District Inspector of Schools in South Kolkata’s Kasba, Kolkata Police said a protestor was seen calling to “burn down the place with petrol”.

This comes after questions were raised on the Kolkata Police’s decision to attack protesting teachers on Wednesday, when visuals surfaced of uniformed police personnel kicking, pushing, and beating protestors with batons to disperse the crowd.

According to police sources, on Thursday, a senior police officer was asked by the Kolkata Police Commissioner to explain the circumstances leading to the use of force on protesters.

For context, aggrieved teachers had organised a protest at the office of the District Inspector of Schools in Kasba against the cancellation of job appointments of over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff recruited by the West Bengal School Service Commission, over fraudulent hiring practices in 2016.

While two protestors were allegedly hospitalised over injuries sustained in their clash with the police, Divisional Commissioner (South Suburban Division) Bidisha Kalita Dasgupta said during the clash that protestors broke barricades and gates and that several police personnel were injured in the unrest. She had added that the police will take legal action over this.