The Mayor of Kolkata, late on Monday, dissolved his council and the police arrested seven councilors on Tuesday for allegedly beating up an administrative officer.
They were later released by city court on a PR bond of Rs 1,000 each.
The seven -- Anup Chatterjee, Mala Roy, Pradip Ghosh, Swapan Samaddar, Javed Khan, Moinul Haq Chowdhury and Samsuzzaman Ansari -- were booked under bailable sections 332 (disturbing discharge of official duty), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Mayor Subrata Mukherjee dissolved the ten-member mayor-in-council, following municipal commissioner Debashish Som's charge that he was assaulted by seven councilors.
Som said he had been beaten up because he had refused to cow down before the seven councilors, who claimed that they were just trying to discuss an official note that Som had issued.
Som issued the note in question a few days ago in which he had said he was not obliged to take orders from the mayor-in-council members and he was only in the superintendence of the mayor.
Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has endorsed Mukherjee's decision and a new mayor-in-council would soon be selected in a few days.
The seven councilors said they were contemplating their next course of action and were hoping for Banerjee's intervention in the mayor's autocratic method of functioning.
Mukherjee has said he would run the show with the deputy mayor and the chairman till the formation of the new council.
With inputs from PTI