Former MP and BJP leader Rupa Ganguly was arrested by police on Thursday morning when she was demanding release of her party colleague Rubi Das, who was rounded up by police on Wednesday on charge of instigating violence, which erupted after the death of the Class IX student at Bansdroni in the southern part of the city.

This morning, police arrested Mrs Ganguly from the spot at Bansdroni police station (PS) where she had been protesting since Wednesday evening against the arrest of Mrs Das, a local BJP worker.

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Both of them were produced before the court at Alipore this afternoon. “Police have done wrong by arresting me because I have done nothing apart from a sit-in-protest in front of the police station. I didn’t even oppose anybody to work,” Mrs Ganguly, former Rajya Sabha MP told reporters at the court complex.

“We have taken legal steps against her because police could not perform its duties following her sit-in,” Manoj Verma, commissioner of police (CP) told reporters.

The student Soumya Sil (15), on his way to tuitions, died after being dashed by the fork-like arm of an earth moving vehicle engaged in repairing a pothole-riddled road in Bansdroni on Wednesday, triggering local residents’ outrage.

Soumya was standing next to a coconut tree with his bicycle when the vehicle scraped a trunk and hit his head around 7 am on Wednesday. He was taken to a nearby government hospital with profuse bleeding where he was declared dead.

Local residents turned violent and erupted in rage protesting the administration’s alleged reluctance to repair around 3-km stretch that has been lying in a dilapidated condition for the past eight years since 2016, when a sewage and drainage development scheme started in the area.

The agitating locals had gheraoed the officer in-charge (OC) of Patuli PS and allegedly heckled him and roughed up with other policemen on the spot.

They were also demanding local councillor Anita Kar Majumder to visit the spot. She has not yet visited the spot and the deceased’s bereaved parents till this afternoon.

“No one has visited us so far since yesterday,” said Anjali Sil, the deceased student’s grandmother.

The driver of the payloader is yet to be arrested.

Later Mrs Ganguly was granted bail after she filed a bail petition in the court. Police earlier registered a case against her under the non-bailable section and opposed her move in the court.

The court granted her bail after she submitted a personal bond of Rs 1,000.