New Delhi: Often in the news for his radical pro-Bangla stance, Bangla Pokkho co-founder Garga Chatterjee was arrested by Kolkata Police’s Cyber Cell on 12 May for his social media posts “about EVM tampering and malpractices in the election process”.
“He was picked up around 11 am, and the police immediately seized his two phones,” Kaushik Maiti, co-founder of Bangla Pokkho, confirmed to ThePrint.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand told ThePrint that Chatterjee had failed to appear before the police despite being served two notices earlier.
Chatterjee, it is learnt, was arrested from his Chetla residence in connection with a complaint submitted by IAS officer Smita Pandey, who was serving as the District Election Officer (DEO), Kolkata North, during the 2026 West Bengal elections.
“During enquiry, it has come to notice that a Facebook user namely ‘Garga Chatterjee’ has published false, fabricated and misleading post on social media alleging the election commission is engaged in committing theft/manipulation of votes inside the Strong room located at Netaji Indoor Stadium where EVMs of Kolkata North Parliamentary Constituency are securely stored (sic),” read Pandey’s complaint to the Maidan police station.
The 2005-batch IAS officer alleged that the “post” spread “misinformation” and “may create social unrest” and “terror” among the public.
Taking cognisance of Pandey’s complaint, the Maidan police station filed an FIR.
The FIR, a copy of which The Print has accessed, specified that it was in connection with the posts in which Chatterjee alleged “theft, manipulation of votes inside the strong room situated in Khudiram Anushilan Kendra by Election Commission where EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) related to Kolkata, north parliamentary constituency are securely stored”.
Subsequently, Chatterjee was booked under Sections 175 (false statements), 353 (1) (b) (creation and publication of false statements), 356 (criminal defamation), 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and 43 and 66 (computer related offences) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
A notice was served to Chatterjee on 3 May, said Bangla Pokkho co-founder Maiti. “We had deleted many posts that the police had an issue with,” he added. The posts on social media platforms X and Facebook are now inaccessible as they have been blocked.
The posts ranged from “Bengali workers being attacked” to painting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as an “outsider” party in West Bengal. In multiple posts, Chatterjee urged the people to vote for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) or the Left Front but not the BJP, if they wanted West Bengal’s social fabric to remain intact.
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Second FIR against Garga Chatterjee
Three days after the FIR at Maidan police station, the cyber police station, Lalbazar, filed a second FIR taking suo motu cognisance of Chatterjee’s social media posts.
“Sometime before 03.05.26 it came to notice that certain controversial and provocative post were dishonestly and fraudulently published/transmitted/circulated from a social media account in the name of Garga Chatterjee,” read the FIR, accessed by The Print.
The “post” has contents that are “objectionable, defamatory and capable of inciting public disorder, hatred and disturbance of public tranquility,” the FIR stated.
Despite the posts being “later deleted”, it said, the “act” appears to have been committed “intentionally with a view to provoke and mislead the general public and to create disharmony among different groups and destruction of electronic evidence”.
Following this, the police booked him under Sections 353(2) (statements conducive to public mischief), 356 (2) (defamation), 61(1) (criminal conspiracy), and 238 (destruction of evidence) of the BNS. Later, the Kolkata Police chief said Garga Chatterjee was arrested for “posting on social media about EVM tampering and malpractices in the election process” and for “again and again writing different things for different communities”.
The arrest, on 12 May, came three days after Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the chief minister of West Bengal on 9 May at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground.
The Bangla Pokkho chapter
Maiti and Chatterjee started Bangla Pokkho in 2019 to raise awareness about the “marginalisation” of the Bengali language and community, often bordering on xenophobia. The group, while lacking money or muscle, grew a thin following over time and was seen vocally protesting against atrocities taking place against Bengali migrants in other states.
On Chatterjee’s arrest, Maiti said they had submitted a letter seeking time till 14 May. “We were receiving death threats and after the election results at least 50 goons had gheraoed Garga’s house,” said Maiti. “First, an FIR on the complaint of DEO North, and, then, a suo motu cognisance of his posts. The police action against Garga comes out of malice.”
Expressing anger over ‘fake news’ about Chatterjee, he said that apart from two phones, nothing else was found or seized from his residence. “Some TV channels are showing that cartridges have been found at Garga’s house and that he and Bangla Pokkho members are Maobadi (Maoists), but this is just an effort to malign him,” he added.
It is not the first time Chatterjee has found himself in the crosshairs of the law.
In 2022, Kolkata Police had arrested him for allegedly hurting sentiments of Assamese people and creating enmity between communities. This was after he made objectionable remarks against Swargadeo Sukapha, who founded the Ahom dynasty, in 2020.
Later, he released a video post in which he tendered a public apology.
On Wednesday, a Kolkata court sent the Bangla Pokkho co-founder to three days in police custody. Chatterjee’s lawyer was to submit a bail plea on 16 May.
ISI Kolkata faculty, PhD from Harvard
Besides being a co-founder of Bangla Pokkho, Chatterjee is part of the faculty at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata.
He completed his MBBS degree from Kolkata Medical College and holds a PhD from Harvard University in the cognition, brain and behavior track at the Vision Sciences Lab.
He then completed his postdoctoral training at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 2011 and 2014.
Before teaching at ISI, Kolkata, Chatterjee was a lecturer at Lesley University in Massachusetts from 2012 to 2013.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Even Bengal’s criminals are much better educated than the intelligentsia of the Hindi heartland states.
Garga Chatterjee may well be punished for his offensive social media posts but his resume/biodata is enviable to say the least.