The petition, which asks the court to nullify the police report, is expected to be heard later in the week by a bench headed by Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya, according to Kalyan Banerjee, the TMC’s senior advocate and MP.
What triggered the case
What we’re looking at are remarks from a rally last month. The person who made the complaint says Banerjee let loose with some strong words for the Union Home Minister, daring him to come out and face the people without his central security once the results are in, and vowing the Trinamool would put an end to what he called a game the BJP had begun.
There is also reference to a Kolkata event on April 7. In the filing, it is put down as: “I will see who comes to save them on May 4. I will see… which godfather from Delhi comes to their rescue.”
How the complaint moved through the system
It all started when social worker Rajib Sarkar put in a complaint at the Baguiati station in North 24 Parganas on May 5. He was told to go to the cyber wing, so he did. A formal FIR was then put on the record at the Cyber Crime station under Bidhannagar on the 15th.
Sarkar says it has nothing to do with him personally. “Any political leader who uses such language and threats against another is not to be tolerated,” he put it to us.
Charges cited by police
On the other side, the police have registered the case under a number of BNS sections, including 196, 351 and 353(1)(c). That first one is non-bailable and carries up to three years. They’ve also invoked the Representation of the People Act.
Key legal references flagged by investigators include:
– BNS Section 196: non-bailable, imprisonment of three years and a fine.
– BNS Section 351: criminal intimidation.
– BNS Section 353(1)(c): circulation of false information, rumours to incite hatred.
– Representation of the People Act: Section 123(2) and Section 125.
You have to figure the cyber angle is there because they want to track the reach of those words online, which fits with 353(1)(c) on inciting hatred.
What the court may examine next
Now the ball is in the High Court's court. They have to decide if the law and the complaint make sense for the probe to go on. For the TMC, it’s about protecting one of their own from these charges in the middle of a hot season. For the police and the man who filed it, it’s a matter of holding someone to account for what they put out in public.
We’ll have to wait for the listing before Justice Bhattacharyya to see where this is heading. For now, the FIR is standing, and the question of what is acceptable in a West Bengal campaign is still very much up for discussion.
