KOLKATA (The Thursday Times) — Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress MP and nephew of former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, appeared before Kolkata police on Saturday for questioning over a social media post that targeted Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, a day after he was summoned in a second case over remarks about police officers.
Banerjee, the party’s national general secretary and the MP for Diamond Harbour, reached Bhowanipore police station in south Kolkata shortly after noon. Police had put up barricades outside the station in anticipation of a crowd of party workers. An officer said the MP was being questioned in connection with the case.
The case concerns a post Banerjee published on X on May 2, during the state assembly election campaign. According to a complaint filed on May 27 by Arnab Kanti Das, a Bhowanipore resident, the post described Kumar as a puppet of an “anti-Bengal Gujarati gang”. Das alleged that the remark portrayed Gujaratis as criminals and could disturb communal harmony and national integrity.
Police registered the case under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, India’s criminal code, that cover promoting enmity between groups and making statements that could cause public mischief.
A second summons
On Friday night, police served a notice at Banerjee’s home in Kalighat directing him to appear at Girish Park police station in north Kolkata at noon on November 20 in a separate case, filed on a complaint by a woman.
That case relates to remarks Banerjee made on October 29, when he accused a section of the police of bias against his party, said the names of “biased” officers were being noted, and warned that they would be held accountable. He also accused officers of framing Trinamool workers in false cases to please Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. The complaint alleges that he threatened police personnel, including a serving Indian Police Service officer, and obstructed them in their duties.
A week of pressure
The cases follow the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in this year’s West Bengal election, which ended the Trinamool’s long rule and left it in opposition. On Thursday, civic workers brought a bulldozer to Banerjee’s home and tore down a shed over the footpath that the party said had housed his police guards before his Z-plus security was withdrawn. Earlier in the week, he accused the police of keeping his house under watch.
Parties in the opposition INDIA bloc, which includes the Trinamool, have staged protests against Kumar in recent weeks.
