BJP man arrested for ‘objectionable’ FB post on Mamata

MIDNAPORE:Police TMC’S ZILLA PARISHAD MEMBER CLAIMED HE HAD LODGED A POLICE COMPLAINT OVER FAKE NEWS BEING SPREAD AGAINST HIM ONLINE

in West Bengal have arrested a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter for allegedly posting an objectionable picture of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on social media.

Babua Ghosh, in his midtwenties, was arrested on September 18 from his native Soula village in Salboni area of West Midnapore district. He had allegedly posted the picture on Facebook on July 27. His mobile phone has been seized and officials are trying to trace the origin of the objectionable photo that also had some Odiya words, a senior police official said.

“We arrested Babua Ghosh on a complaint lodged by a local. He has been booked under provisions of the IT Act. He was presented in a court, which sent him to judicial custody,” said Alok Rajoria, superintendent of police, West Midnapore.

Ghosh has been booked under section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of IT Act and IPC sections 292 (Sale, etc, of obscene books) and 504 (Intentional insult with intent to pro- voke breach of the peace).

District BJP leaders said that they don’t support such activities but wondered why Ghosh was arrested nearly two months after the photo was uploaded.

“Ghosh has been arrested for political reasons. He had posted some information about Nepal Singh and his son Sandip Singh, both ruling party leaders of Salboni area, being involved in corrupt activities. Trinamool Congress supporters created pressure on police to arrest him,” alleged Samit Dash, president of BJP’s West Midnapore unit.

“However, we do not support what Ghosh allegedly did,” Dash said, adding the BJP will extend legal help to the accused.

Nepal Singh, a zilla parishad (district council) member of the TMC, claimed he had lodged a complaint over fake news being circulated against him. “But I had no idea of the picture that was posted by Ghosh,” he said.

MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was Friday removed from the post of the party’s West Bengal president, and replaced by Somendra Nath Mitra, a party release announcing the shake-up said.

Chowdhury was instead appointed as the chairman of the party’s state campaign committee, a decision he said he learnt about “from the media”.

“I would tell them to appoint someone else as chairman of that committee,” he told PTI.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who took the decisions, also named Pradip Bhattacharya as the chairman of the party’s state coordination committee, besides appointing four working presidents — Sankar Malakar, Nepal Mahato, Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury and Deepa Dasmunsi, the party release added.

Speaking to the reporters after his removal from the party’s state president post, Chowdhury said that he had previously “told Rahul Gandhi that if he feels I am unable to perform, he can appoint someone else”.

“The AICC (All India Congress Committee) did what they felt right. I have nothing to say.”

He declined to comment on whether he would continue to be a member of the Congress.

KOLKATA:Congress