The arrest of Congress spokesperson Koustav Bagchi over remarks made against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not the first time the West Bengal police has acted promptly against people seen to have “transgressed” when it comes to the Trinamool Congress supremo. In April 2012, soon after Mamata had come to power for the first time, a Jadavpur University professor, Ambikesh Mahapatra, was arrested for sharing an email that carried a cartoon supposedly poking fun at the CM. He was acquitted only recently, more than a decade later. Talking to The Indian Express after his acquittal, Mahapatra said, “Of course I am happy to be out of all this. But who will give me back these (10) years? The case was dragged on intentionally for such a long time without any merit.” Soon after Mahapatra's arrest, in August 2012, a farmer, Shiladitya Choudhury, was held – two days after he had questioned Mamata about fertiliser prices at a public rally in Belpahari. The CM had snapped at him, calling him a Maoist and ordering the police to arrest him. He was later accused of “grievously hurting” policemen on duty at the rally, and spent 14 days in jail. In July 2013, the West Bengal Human Rights Commission ordered the state government to pay Choudhury Rs 2 lakh as compensation. In May 2019, Priyanka Sharma, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader, was arrested and slapped with non-bailable charges for sharing a photoshopped image of Mamata on social media. She spent several days in prison before she was granted bail by the Supreme Court. Congress leader Sanmoy Bandyopadhyay was arrested in October 2019, late in the evening, after he had posted on social media views critical of the CM and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Released on bail after two days, he claimed he had been tortured in custody. YouTuber Roddur Roy was arrested from Goa in June 2022 for allegedly taunting Mamata. Several complaints were filed against Roy over his purported remarks, at different police stations in Kolkata, and he was brought on transit remand to Bengal. Roy spent at least 20 days in prison before getting bail.
