The Kolkata Police on Friday (September 11, 2026) arrested Congress leader Atanu Das for holding a protest and burning photographs of Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, alias Baba Bageshwar, outside the Bhawanipore police station on September 8.

The arrest in the early hours of Friday came after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had on Thursday directed the police to arrest those protesting against the preacher. He backed Mr. Shastri and said in the State Assembly that the godman’s remarks on going vegetarian during pujas were only a prescriptive.

West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar described the arrest as repression unleashed by the West Bengal government.

“ I strongly protest and condemn this incident of arrest. We want to ask, why was that so-called Baba Bageshwar, who made derogatory remarks about Bengalis, who insulted Bengali culture and heritage, not arrested?” Mr. Sarakar said in the statement.

The Kolkata Police said that during the protests held outside Bhawanipore police station on September 8, posters bearing the image of Dhirendra Shastri “were burnt, trampled upon, and slapped with shoes by the accused persons and members of the gathering”.

According to the police, the acts by the protesters “amounted to an insult to the religious sentiments of a particular community and posed a threat to public order with the potential to incite social disharmony”. 

Along with Atanu Das, who has been arrested, the police have also booked Ashutosh Chatterjee, general secretary of Congress, and Pradip Prasad, president, south Kolkata district Congress committee.

Mr. Shastri's remark urging Hindus in Bengal not to sell non-veg food items near Durga idols sparked a debate over dietary preferences during Durga Puja festivities.

People across the State slammed the remarks, with many saying that people from outside the region cannot lecture on dietary preferences. There has been a tradition of offering and having non-vegetarian food during the Duja Puja festival.

West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, on September 7, appeared to contain the damage by saying nobody could ask Bengalis to give up non-vegetarian food.