A case has been filed against former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on charges of sedition and several other non-bailable sections over remarks she made concerning the killing of Osman Hadi, spokesperson of Bangladesh’s Inquilab Mancha. Rinku Chatterjee Singh, a lawyer of the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench of the Calcutta High Court, filed the complaint at the Siliguri Cyber Crime police station.
The complaint says that, by questioning the neutrality of the Election Commission and central forces, Mamata Banerjee tried to create confusion and hatred in the public mind. It also alleges that her statement implicating the Indian government and the union home minister in a killing in Bangladesh could damage India’s image on the international stage. The complainant claims Mamata’s remarks could negatively affect diplomatic relations with neighbouring Bangladesh and create risks for the two countries’ communal harmony and national security.
On the basis of these allegations, the complaint was filed under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections 152, 153, 153(a), 191, 192, 196, 351, 352 and 353. These include charges such as disrupting the sovereignty, harmony and public order of the state.
For context, about a month after her defeat in the assembly election, Mamata Banerjee raised the Osman Hadi killing while speaking at a political event. She claimed that the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) had arrested several people involved in the much-discussed killing in Bangladesh. She also alleged that union Home Minister Amit Shah later phoned her and asked her not to disclose the matter. Mamata further claimed that those connected with the killing had entered West Bengal through the Meghalaya border and were later detained by the STF. She did not, however, disclose their names, saying that revealing them could trigger a major reaction in Bangladesh.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report