Tripura cops file FIR against TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, 5 senior TMC leaders

KOLKATA: Tripura Police has filed an FIR against senior Trinamool Congress MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Dola Sen, Bengal education minister Bratya Basu, party general secretary Kunal Ghosh, former Tripura minister Prakash Das and former MLA Subal Bhowmik for allegedly obstructing police officers from performing their duties, prompting the Trinamool leadership to claim that the ruling BJP in Tripura was “scared”.
On Sunday, these leaders had staged a protest in the Khowai police station against the arrest of 14 party workers — including those injured in an attack on their vehicles allegedly by BJP men — for violation of Covid norms.

The FIR, filed late on Tuesday by officer-in-charge Manoranjan Debbarma, says the Trinamool leaders reached the Khowai PS and demanded that the 14 arrested be released or the penal sections slapped on them be diluted. They “misbehaved” with the cops and obstructed them from producing the 14 arrested in court, it said.
Late on Monday, the OC first registered a general diary over the previous day’s ruckus in the police station and forwarded it to a local court. On receiving a nod from the court, an FIR was lodged against the TMC leaders at 9.50pm on Tuesday under Section 186 of IPC for obstructing public servants from their duty.
The Trinamool leadership on Wednesday dismissed the charges and claimed the BJP in Tripura was “scared”. Taking a dig at CM Biplab Deb, Bratya Basu wrote on Twitter “Chop, Tripuray Biplab cholchhe (Be quiet, there’s a revolution happening in Tripura)”. He also quoted from Sukumar Ray’s nonsense verse — “Bhoy peyona, bhoy peyona, tomay ami marbo na. Sotti bolchhi tomar songe kusti kore parbo na (Don’t be scared, I’ll not hit you. To be honest, I can’t wrestle with you.)”
Lawyer Sanjay Basu, who had moved the bail plea for the arrested Trinamool men, claimed all 14 were produced before the court by 2:30 pm. “There was no hindrance at all. We are not in any wrong and appropriate legal steps will be taken (against the FIR).” The lawyer, whose car was also vandalised when he appeared in court on August 8 , said the FIR lodged has factual discrepancies and will be legally challenged.
Trinamool’s Bengal general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh took to Twitter to refute the claims that they had obstructed the court production of the 14 arrested workers. “We wanted to know the penal sections (under which they were arrested). We sought time till lawyers arrived. It was BJP workers who had surrounded the police station. We had taken them (the arrested leaders) to court. In the court that day, police never made these allegations.” He added: “Actually, BJP is scared. Is it a crime to seek release of arrested people legally? Those assaulted were arrested and the assaulters – despite video footage on who they were – were not arrested.”