Tripura Police book Abhishek Banerjee, other Trinamool leaders for ‘misbehaving with cops’

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Khowai district superintendent of police Kiran Kumar said they were booked in a suo moto FIR registered on Tuesday under IPC section 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) among others.

The FIR was registered shortly after BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya said TMC leaders had allegedly misbehaved with police officials during their visit to Tripura.

The TMC members were returning to Agartala from Ambassa in the Dhalai district when a clash with the ruling BJP supporters left youth leaders Sudip Raha and Jaya Dutta injured. A local court of Khowai district later granted bail and interim bail to all 14 arrested TMC workers on the same day and asked the police to submit the case diary on the next hearing.

Abhishek Banerjee, who flew in from Kolkata after the incident, visited Khowai and alleged his party workers were attacked by BJP supporters and arrested by the police thereafter. He later returned to Kolkata on the same day along with all his party workers out on bail.

Reacting to the issue, party leader Subal Bhowmik, who has also been booked, said TMC workers are being harassed and falsely implicated in cases. “We didn’t create any obstruction in the duty of police officials on that day. 48 hours later, they booked us under section 186.

These allegations are baseless and the police administration is being misused for political ends against TMC”, he said.

He also alleged false charges like causing grave injury, attempt to murder among were slapped on 12 other TMC activists at Ambassa.