KOLKATA: A team of the Kolkata Police on Tuesday afternoon arrested vlogger Roddur Roy from Goa on charges of abusing Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, during a Facebook Live session, a senior officer of the force said.
"He was arrested this afternoon by our officers in Goa. He will be brought to Kolkata on transit remand. Our officers will produce him at a local court there for the remand," the police officer said.
An FIR was lodged under various sections of the IPC against the vlogger after a complaint was filed by TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta at Chitpur police station on Saturday.
Roy, who widely uses expletives in his social media posts, often courting controversies, hurled a barrage of abuses at the chief minister and the Diamond Harbour MP, besides other TMC leaders such as Firhad Hakim and Madan Mitra, blaming the ruling party for the alleged mismanagement at singer KK's last concert at Nazrul Mancha here.
The singer had collapsed, shortly after his performance at the auditorium, and was declared 'brought dead' by doctors when taken to a hospital.
Roy's Facebook Live video has been removed from the social networking site by authorities.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Anupam Hazra, reacting to the development, sought to know why the police had taken no action against the vlogger when he used foul language for luminaries like Rabindranath Tagore.
"Now that the chief minister and Abhishek Banerjee were abused, the police swung into action. Why should it be so?" he maintained.
Incidentally, in April 2012, the Kolkata Police had arrested Jadavpur University Chemistry Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for allegedly forwarding an email containing a cartoon of the chief minister.