4 held for assaulting prof,let off in 2 hours

While the Trinamool Congress tried to project the arrest of Abhijit Mukherjee,Amit Sardar,Sheikh Mustafa and Nishikanta Ghorai on Mahapatras FIR as a sign of its governments neutrality,Mukherjee himself laughed off the police action. What arrest? We were picked up at noon and let off at 2 pm, he told The Sunday Express.

Mahapatra had accused the four of beating him up over the cartoon and forcing him to declare that he was a member of the CPM. They had been charged under bailable IPC Sections 506 punishment for criminal intimidation,321 voluntarily causing hurt,341 punishment for wrongful restraint and 114 abettor present when offence is committed.

I had to spend overnight in custody and those who assaulted me were granted bail shortly after they were arrested. I have nothing to say,people are witness and they will decide, Mahaptara said.

Senior Trinamool leader Baiswanor Chatterjee,who appeared as defence lawyer for the four partymen,defended the bail.

This is the difference between the administration of the former Left government and the Trinamool government. Our government is neutral. If there is an FIR against our partymen,then they are arrested and in due course of law,they are granted bail. But during the Left rule,no CPM cadre was ever arrested, he said.

Moreover,he added,Mahapatra himself was far from neutral and was a CPM member. He was the polling agent in the Assembly constituency of former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee during the 2011 Assembly elections8230; He has done all these things to embarrass the TMC-led government. He is completely backed by CPM leaders, said Chatterjee.