Case against Mahua Moitra under non-bailable BNS sections; summons issued

Kolkata: West Bengal police have registered a case against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra under multiple non-bailable provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and summoned her to a cyber crime police station in South 24 Parganas on Saturday.

The Krishnanagar MP has been called to the Diamond Harbour Cyber Crime Police Station at 11 a.m. on 5 September following a complaint that her social media post incited communal hatred. According to the police, the case has been booked under sections 196, 197, 299 and 353 of the BNS, which cover promoting enmity between groups, acts prejudicial to national integration, outraging religious feelings and spreading false reports or rumours that cause public mischief.

The complaint stems from a post Moitra made on 1 September in which she alleged that Muslim IPS and IAS officers were deliberately excluded from Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s programme in North Bengal, naming Siliguri Police Commissioner Waquar Raja, STF DG Javed Shamim and IAS officer Khalil Ahmed. A few days earlier, she was questioned for over an hour at the Hogalbari Police Station in Nadia in a separate case involving similar allegations.

Moitra has not yet responded to the latest complaint. Separately, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the state police to provide her with adequate armed security after she was targeted with eggs during a recent visit to her Krishnanagar constituency.

(Inputs from IANS)