Calcutta HC allows BJP-backed outfit to hold Puja of Lord Ram at Kalighat on Jan 22

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Wednesday gave conditional permission to BJP-backed local club -- Bahumukhi Seva Samity -- to conduct Puja of Lord Rama at Kalighat area in South Kolkata on January 22 during the inauguration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

Tushar Kanti Ghosh -- Chief of BJP media cell in West Bengal -- had approached the single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta on January 10 after police denied the permission to the club to conduct the Puja in Kalighat area, which is close to the Kolkata’s iconic Kalighat Kali temple and residence of the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The court observed that the programme should be conducted at one corner of the citizen’s park in Kalighat area without encroaching the adjacent pedestrian path.

The court has also denied the permission to conduct the Puja for the entire day and fixed the time till 6 p.m. only.

The programme is part of BJP’s statewide plans of live screening the Pran Pratishtha ceremony on giant screens besides distributing ‘Prasad’ among people and organising cultural programmes on the occasion.