Congress leader and lawyer Koustav Bagchi was arrested by the Kolkata police after a post-midnight swoop in his house on Saturday for his alleged derogatory remarks against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Bagchi was arrested under sections 120b (criminal conspiracy), 153 (provocation to cause riot), 354a (sexual harassment), 504 (intentional insult), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 506 (criminal intimidation) 509 (insult modesty of woman),” said an officer of the Burtolla police station in north Kolkata.
A team of Kolkata police personnel reached Bagchi’s house around 3am on Saturday. He was arrested in the morning after some heated altercations.
The arrest came just two days after the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost the Sagardighi by-election in Murshidabad district. The Left-backed Congress candidate won from the seat, which had been a TMC-stronghold for the last 13 years.
On Thursday, after the by-election results were announced, Banerjee trained her gun against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, West Bengal Congress president and leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha.
“Will he (Choudhury) be able to tell anything if I ask him about his daughter’s suicide? If I ask questions about his driver’s murder, will he be able to answer? I know many things. Don’t force me to open my mouth,” Banerjee told media persons at the state secretariat.
{{/usCountry}}“Will he (Choudhury) be able to tell anything if I ask him about his daughter’s suicide? If I ask questions about his driver’s murder, will he be able to answer? I know many things. Don’t force me to open my mouth,” Banerjee told media persons at the state secretariat.
{{/usCountry}}Even though Choudhury didn’t respond to the chief minister’s statements, Bagchi stepped up his attack against Banerjee on Friday. He read out some excerpts from a book written by Dipak Ghosh, a former bureaucrat and once a trusted aide of Banerjee and said that copies of the book would be shared at a press conference. The book deals with the TMC supremo’s personal life.
“It is good to see that Banerjee is scared. The arrest is totally illegal. The TMC has become politically insolvent. We will see her (Banerjee) in the court and also fight it out on the streets,” Bagchi told media persons.
The TMC, however, hit back at him.
“By making such statements he has only insulted his mother. How can one make such derogatory statements? It reflects one’s upbringing. He is actually trying to remain relevant within the Congress. But such things will only sustain him temporarily,” TMC minister Partha Bhowmick told a local media.
The incident triggered a political storm in the eastern state where the crucial panchayat polls are likely to be held in the next few months.
“This is the TMC’s actual face. Under the TMC rule none is allowed to speak out against the chief minister. It happened earlier also when Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra was arrested for forwarding a cartoon. We will fight it legally and politically. Bagchi is not a fugitive that police had to swoop down in his house after midnight to arrest him” said Choudhury.
“The state administration and the police have totally gone insane. Bagchi didn’t say anything new. He just read some excerpts. Time has come to teach the police a lesson,” CPI(M) member of Parliament (MP) and senior lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya told reporters.