Trinamool Congress national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee was questioned by Kolkata Police for nearly four hours on Saturday in connection with an FIR over a social media post allegedly targeting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the Gujarati community.
The Diamond Harbour MP appeared at Bhowanipur police station before the scheduled time of 12.30 pm in response to a police notice and left after the questioning. His appearance prompted rival TMC and BJP supporters to exchange slogans outside the police station.
As Banerjee emerged from the police station, BJP supporters allegedly raised slogans of "chor, chor". TMC supporters, in turn, accused the BJP of paying people small amounts to raise such slogans, claiming that unemployment was high in the state and that the promised Annapurna scheme benefits for one crore people had not materialised.
The FIR was registered on May 27 following a complaint by Bhabanipur resident Arnabkanti Das over a post Banerjee published on X on May 2. The TMC leader had allegedly described Kumar as a "puppet of an anti-Bengali Gujarati gang".
The complainant alleged that the remarks were derogatory towards the Gujarati community and could promote hatred, disturb communal harmony and undermine national integrity. He also argued that describing the community as a "gang" amounted to portraying its members as criminals.
Police registered the case under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, relating to promoting enmity, inciting violence, spreading rumours and causing public disorder, among other charges.
In a separate development, Kolkata Police registered another FIR against Banerjee on Friday over alleged derogatory remarks and threats against a serving Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in West Bengal.
Police personnel visited his Kalighat residence on Friday night and served him a notice directing him to appear at Girish Park police station by noon on November 20 for questioning in that case.
Banerjee has appeared before the police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on multiple occasions in connection with different cases since the BJP came to power in West Bengal.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS)