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Youth held in West Bengal for Facebook post ‘against TMC leader’
West Bengal police on Friday arrested a resident of Malbazar of Jalpaiguri district for allegedly posting a comment against a local Trinamool councillor on Facebook that did not even name him.
In a reminder of the 2012 incident when Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and his neighbour were arrested for e-mailing a spoof on chief minister Mamata Banerjee and railway minister Mukul Roy, police on Friday arrested a resident of Malbazar of Jalpaiguri district for allegedly posting a comment against a local Trinamool councillor on Facebook that did not even name him.
Rohit Passi, 34, was made to sit on a stool in the duty officer’s room at Mal police station through the night and was produced before the sub-divisional magistrate on Saturday from where he got a bail for Rs 2,000.
The arrest was made after a complaint by Pulin Goldar, a Trinamool Congress councillor of ward 12 of Mal municipality. Passi’s post didn’t mention Goldar’s name but took a jibe at “a local leader who was seen trying to get an accused in a murder case released on bail on Friday”.
“On Friday, I went to Jalpaiguri court and saw a leader talking to a person whose family member was booked in a murder case. Incidentally, I went to the court with the victim’s family members… the leader was trying to arrange bail for them,” Passi said.
“If I had any intention to intimidate Passi, I wouldn’t have lodged a complaint but would have caught him outside the police station. I am going to file a defamation case against him,” Goldar said.
