New Delhi: Three days after Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the West Bengal Chief Minister, the Kolkata Police arrested Garga Chatterjee, co-founder of Bangla Pokkho, a group fighting against the “marginalisation of Bengali language”.
In multiple posts, he urged the people to vote for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) or the Left Front but not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), if they wanted Bengal’s social fabric to remain intact.
Chatterjee was arrested 12 May from his Chetla residence. “He was picked up around 11 am, and the police immediately seized his two phones,” said Kaushik Maiti, co-founder of Bangla Pokkho.
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 following over time and was seen vocally protesting against atrocities taking place against Bengali migrants in other states.
Controversy is not new to the language activist, as the Kolkata Police had arrested him in 2022 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.
Besides being a co-founder of Bangla Pokkho, Chatterjee is a faculty member at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. He completed an 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. Chatterjee was a lecturer at Lesley University in Massachusetts from 2012 to 2013.
The now suspended social media pages of Chatterjee had posts ranging from ‘Bengali workers being attacked’ to painting the BJP as an ‘outsider’ in West Bengal.
Facing two FIRs, Chatterjee was arrested in connection to a complaint submitted by IAS officer Smita Pandey, who was serving as the District Election Officer (DEO), Kolkata North and Municipal Commissioner.
Her complaint to the Maidan Police station read: “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 (Electronic Voting Machines) of Kolkata North Parliamentary Constituency are securely stored.”
The said “post”, the complaint said, 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 accessed by The Print 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 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 Act.
A notice was served to Chatterjee 3 May, said Maiti. “We had deleted many posts that the police had an issue with,” he added.
Three days later, the Cyber Police station, Lalbazar, filed a second FIR taking suo moto 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”.
He was booked 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, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand said Chatterjee was arrested on May 12 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”.
While Nand told The Print that Chatterjee had failed to appear before the police despite being served two notices, Maiti said that they had submitted a written 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,” Maity told The Print.
Before Chatterjee could appear 14 May, the Kolkata Police arrested him 12 May following which a court sent him to three-day police custody.
“First an FIR on the complaint of DEO North and then a suo moto cognisance of his posts. The police action against Garga comes from a place of malice,” Maiti alleged.
Expressing his anger over ‘fake news’ spread 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, but this is just an effort to malign him,” he added.
Chatterjee’s legal counsel Antarikha Basu will submit a bail plea 16 May.
(Edited by Tony Rai)