Day after his ‘TMC petao’ remark, 24 FIRs lodged against Sinha

State food minister and TMC leader in-charge of North-24 Parganas, Jyotipriya Mullick, said at least eight FIRs have been lodged in his district alone.

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“How could he say such a word? We will see how his party men even touches any of our party workers. BJP has only one MLA in the Assembly and that will become zero in the polls next year. Sinha is trying to instigate people at a time when Prime Minister himself came and praised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the kind of developmental work the state government is doing,” he said.

Sinha, however, refused to retract his comments.

“Why only a few police stations? Let them complain to all the police stations in state. I still say that if policemen are beaten up by TMC workers, the policemen should, in reply should beat up those miscreants,” he said.

Among others, the FIRs have been registered against Sinha at Bidhannagar North and South, Bongaon, Habra, Gaighata and Baguiati police stations. The complainants include former MLA Gopal Seth, councillor Banibrata Banerjee and North-24 Parganas TMC vice president Subhas Bose.

Legal experts, however, said these statements should be taken in the right spirit. “These are political statements and should be treated accordingly. What he had said is for the police to beat up TMC workers if they beat policemen. Now it is up to the police to decide. If Sinha is arrested on that ground, a bunch of TMC senior leaders such as Anubrata Mondal, Tapas Pal, Manirul Islam and Jyotipriya Mullick should also be arrested,” said noted High Court lawyer Arunava Ghosh.

Sinha, during a law violation programme at Rani Rashmoni Avenue Thursday had said, “How will the police give us any protection? They themselves are not safe in this state. Some officers call me up and say, ‘please do something; we are getting beaten up almost every day’. I tell them to start a ‘TMC-petao abhiyaan (beat up the TMC)’. We are with you”.

He also called upon his party workers, exhorting them to “retaliate and give a fitting reply” if the TMC workers use force on them.