A complaint has been filed against a college student for sharing cartoons of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on his Facebook account. The police complaint was filed against Ramnayan Chowdhury, a second year student of Bidhannagar Government College. Ramnayan is a member of the SFI unit of the college.
The general diary was lodged by a Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad member Subhakshan Datta.
“A police complaint has been filed against Ramnayan for circulating cartoons referring to chief minister in it,” officer of Bidhannagar (north) police station Santanu Kar said.
Ramnayan said, “I had shared the cartoon which criticised and compared the performances of Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the Pakistan series and Ms Banerjee’s industry growth agenda and the arrest of a poor farmer after allegedly branding him as Maoist.”
The student claimed that he came to know about the complaint on January 17 and cited that he has been “targeted” because of his affiliation to the Left wing students’ organisation. “I don’t know why they (TMC) are so intolerant. They should not forget that this is a democracy,” he added.
The incident brought back memories of the arrest of Jadavpur University chemistry professor Ambikesh Mahapatra who had circulated cartoons of Ms Banerjee and the then railway minister Mukul Roy in 2012.
The professor was released on bail following controversy and criticism from various sections of the society.