Two pillars at the entrance of Anandabazar Patrika's Kolkata office were painted saffron on Tuesday, September 1, in an apparent protest over the newspaper's description of violence at Jadavpur University as 'gerua gundami' or 'saffron hooliganism'.

The protest came just days after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari demanded that the newspaper apologise for the headline, sharply escalating a controversy that has now spilled from political rallies onto the premises of one of Bengal's prominent newspapers.

Videos of the incident show two saffron-clad men painting the pillars at the main entrance of the Anandabazar Patrika office, while several police personnel remain nearby.

Some of the officers were also seen recording the proceedings on their mobile phones.

According to Alt News, the demonstration began at around 1:30 pm on Tuesday and lasted for nearly an hour. Several other men dressed in saffron gathered outside the office and raised slogans including 'Bhagwa ka apmaan nahi sahega' — or 'We will not tolerate the insult of Bhagwa' — and 'Anandabazar Patrika haye haye'.

In another video, members of the group can be heard addressing a crowd and declaring, 'This land belongs to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. This land belongs to Swami Vivekananda. This land is Saffron.'

The protest follows a front-page headline published by Anandabazar on August 21 that read: 'Saffron Hooliganism: Logo broken during raid on JU campus'.

The headline referred to the violence during a raid at the Jadavpur University campus and subsequently drew a strong reaction from Adhikari.

The CM had demanded an apology from the newspaper, while insisting that his demand did not constitute a threat to the media.

At a rally in Jadavpur on August 28, Adhikari said, 'An apology will have to be made. Otherwise thousands of sadhus in saffron robes are getting ready. They only want my consent…'

Anandabazar Patrika did not apologise or retract its reports. Instead, the newspaper carried a follow-up report featuring the Chief Minister's statements.

The controversy has also reached the police. According to the information reported by Alt News, Kolkata Police lodged an FIR at Bowbazar police station against editor Ishani Dutta Roy, chief reporter Soma Mukherjee and 'others from its editorial team' following a complaint by Sanjay Shastri Maharaj.

The complaint alleged that the headline was capable of hurting Hindu sentiments and disturbing public peace, describing the wording as 'highly objectionable, derogatory, misleading and offensive'.

It also called for an investigation into who proposed, approved and edited the expression used in the headline.

However, Alt News, while reporting on the September 1 protest, said Bowbazar police station told it that no FIR had been lodged yet.

Police also confirmed that the personnel seen at the protest site were from Bowbazar police station.

Meanwhile, the newspaper's office had already been placed under additional security following the CM's statements, according to a senior editor quoted by Alt News.

The editor said the newspaper had anticipated that something similar could happen and that staff members had been advised not to come to the office on Tuesday.

The editor also told that police officials had arrived with the protesters and left with them.

Asked whether the men were affiliated with any organisation, the editor said they were not carrying banners but claimed that most of them were non-Bengalis.

The confrontation did not end with the saffron paint. A couple of hours after the incident, Anandabazar Patrika editor Ishani Datta Ray posted a photograph on Facebook showing the wall repainted white.

The accompanying caption read 'উচ্চ যেথা শির' (Where the head is held high), a line from Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Where the Mind Is Without Fear'.