Men Wearing Saffron Throw Paint at Anandabazar Patrika Office; HC Declines Urgent Relief to Journalists
Kolkata: Men wearing saffron scarves gathered outside the Anandabazar Patrika office in Kolkata around noon on Tuesday (September 1) and threw saffron paint across its gates, a boundary pillar and the pavement in front of it. They were protesting against the paper's description of the Jadavpur University violence as "gerua gundami", or saffron hooliganism involving Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students.
A day after the incident on Wednesday (September 2), the Calcutta high court declined to grant urgent hearing to two journalists against whom a first information report (FIR) has been filed due to the usage of the term "gerua gundami".
A group of men gathered outside the Ananda Bazar Patrika office in Calcutta. Photo by arrangement.
Within an hour, the paint was gone. The paper had the pillars whitewashed as soon as the group left.
“These miscreants came to office and did this,” a senior journalist at the newspaper told The Wire. “We are washing the pillars now.”
Photographs from the scene show orange paint running down the gatepost and the wall beside it and splashed on the paving stones. A group of about 20 men in saffron scarves sat on the ground directly outside the gate, some holding up printed sheets.
They shouted, “Bhagwa ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan,” India will not tolerate the insult of saffron. Uniformed police stood behind them and were seen waiting rather than moving them.
Goons surrounded Anandabazar Patrika office and painted part of the walls with Saffron. Police present there were mute spectators. A few days back, West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari asked newspaper Anandabazar Patrika to apologise for using the phrase “saffron hooliganism” in its… pic.twitter.com/0u64dgtpVC
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) September 1, 2026
Whether a case has been filed over the paint throwing incident is not clear. A senior journalist at the newspaper said on Tuesday afternoon that they did not know whether one had been registered. Officers at the scene filmed the protest, so the police has its own footage of the men who were present.
Ananda Bazar Patrika washed the saffron paint off its pillars in an hour. Photo by arrangement.
The Wire asked the Kolkata Police Commissioner, Ajay Nanda, whether a case had been registered over the vandalism and if anyone had been detained.
“We will take necessary legal action as per the complaint,” Nanda said.
Police have summoned the two journalists named in the FIR registered at Bowbazar Police Station on August 28 over the same headline. Ishani Dutta Roy and Soma Mukherjee have been asked to appear before the investigating officer. Both are understood to be preparing to move court for anticipatory bail rather than attend.
Of the four provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita cited in the FIR, Sections 196 and 299 are ordinarily treated as non bailable, which means arrest is available without a warrant and release afterwards is at a court’s discretion rather than a matter of right.
Anticipatory bail is the only protection available to someone in that position before they walk into a police station. It also means two working journalists must now spend their week in front of a judge because of a phrase on a front page.
The FIR names a third accused as well, entered as “others editorial team of Anandabazar Patrika,” a category nobody has closed.
The complaint behind it was received at Bowbazar on August 27. The FIR was registered at 2.30 pm the following afternoon.
Four days before the paint appeared, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari told a rally near Jadavpur University that the paper would have to apologise for writing the phrase. He also warned that that thousands of sadhus in saffron robes were getting ready, waiting only for his consent, and that he had told them to wait. There is no evidence that the men at the gate on Tuesday had anything to do with him or that remark.
Anandabazar Patrika has published no apology, correction or retraction since the August 21 report. It featured the chief minister’s remarks on its front page, including his instruction to the reporters present not to write "gerua gundami" again.
This article went live on September second, two thousand twenty six, at twenty-one minutes past one in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
