A man who asked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a public meeting what steps she was taking to help farmers has been arrested by the police. The man Siladitya Chowdhury had told the chief minister at her public meeting at the former Maoist stronghold of Belpahari on August 8 that farmers were dying and asked what steps her government were taking since 'empty promises were not enough'. The chief minister had been taken aback and claimed that the man was a Maoist. She had asked the police to arrest the man. The police had detained Chowdhury,a resident of Noawa village under Binpur police station,but had let him go after questioning. He was arrested last night from his home,police sources said. Chowdhury was produced in the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Priyajit Chatterjee's court today and remanded to 14 days in judicial custody. He was charged under sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant in discharge of duty),333 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant in discharging public duty),353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging duty),447 (criminal trespass) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC. Earlier this year on May 19,the chief minister had accused a student on a TV talk show of being a Maoist,when questioned about what she was doing about the security of women after the Park Street rape of an Anglo-Indian woman.
