Mamata toon row: bail for 4 held for assault

CNN-IBN | 14-Apr 14:14 PM

Kolkata: The four people arrested for allegedly assaulting Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra have been released on bail and on a personal bond of Rs 500 rupees. This came a day after Ambikesh was arrested for sharing a satirical anti-Mamata cartoon with others through the university e-mail system and later granted bail.

Ambikesh had lodged an FIR against the four on Friday at the east Jadavpur police station.

The four arrested are Amrit Sardar, Arup Mukherjee, Nishikanda Ghorai, Sheikh Mustafa. Two of the arrested, Amrit Sardar and Arup Mukherjee are allegedly Trinamool Congress workers. They will be produced in the Alipore court.

Mahapatra had alleged in his FIR that he was roughed up by Trinamool Congress workers and forced to write an apology, confessing to being a CPI-M supporter. He was then arrested by the police.

Mahapatra said, "The incident has raised serious concerns about freedom of speech in Bengal. Teachers at the university are protesting."

His colleague Partha Roy said, "In one sense this is scary and now I am also confused whether I should say some things or not."

The cartoon drew on dialogues from a Satyajit Ray classic to mock West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee's policies. The Trinamool Congress alleged it defamed Mamata and party leaders Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal police is now probing a complaint of defamation against social networking sites, including Facebook. The complainant alleges malicious campaigning against Mamata Banerjee on social networking sites.

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