Anubrata Mondal is one of Mamata Banerjee’s favourites. Keshto, she calls him. The chief of the Birbhum wing of the Trinamool Congress, he ensures victory in every election. And he raises funds: he just spent two years in Tihar for links with cattle smuggling.
Mondal’s foul comments are legendary. He once publicly ordered TMC workers to bomb the police and to set fire to the homes of political foes. No action was ever taken against him. But in the leaked audio clip of a phone conversation that went viral last week, his language crossed too many Lakshman Rekhas. Mondal is heard warning a police inspector, Liton Halder, with physical harm and threatening his wife and mother with rape.
Every other word in the audio clip is a four-letter expletive and has had to be bleeped out.
For a party that boasts numerous women MPs, multiple welfare schemes for women, and is led by a woman, the whataboutery that followed is a blot. If a BJP leader can abuse Col Sofiya Qureshi or a Congressman’s mother on public TV, then why target Mondal, was the TMC chorus. A few who condemned Mondal mumbled. Mamata should have publicly rebuked him and kept police morale up by ordering the strictest action. But she did not.
Instead, the legal cell of Birbhum police sent a letter to the lead anchor of a top Bengali TV news channel, ABP Ananda. It threatened action “without any further notice” if the channel continued to air the controversial audio clip as it “tarnished the image of the police”. As if Mondal had not damaged the image of the police already with the abuse he had hurled at the inspector in charge of Bolpur police station, and then ignored police summons for days. Seemingly with impunity.
The Anubrata Mondal case
The police did file an FIR against Mondal, charging him with two cognisable offences—sexual harassment and use of criminal force to deter public servants from doing their duty—and two non-cognisable offences. These could put a common man behind bars or at least force the accused to seek anticipatory bail.
But not Mondal. Summoned to the police station twice—on 31 May and 1 June—he sent a medical certificate prescribing him five days of bed rest. But the certificate, reports claim, is dubious. It was issued by a government doctor, not on his official pad but on the letterhead of a private medical college, allegedly in complete violation of service rules. The doctor has since been incommunicado, at least for the media.
Displaying perhaps the only dash of diffidence in this drama, Mondal arrived at the police station on Thursday, sneaking in through the back gate in a friend’s car, minus his trademark white SUV, security staff, and pilot. Two hours of interrogation later, he left looking unruffled. He reportedly told the police he had no memory of any conversation with Inspector Liton Halder at 11.30 pm on 28 May because he was not in his senses after taking his sleeping pills.
Police have reportedly confiscated two cell phones of Inspector Halder, the recipient of the abusive call. Meanwhile, they have let the alleged abusive caller, Mondal, keep his own.
Which begs the question: Who taped the phone conversation? Between abuses, Mondal is heard mocking Halder, saying, “I know you are recording the conversation.” If that was so, did Halder also leak it? The police will address this issue eventually. Congress and BJP leaders are worried that Halder may end up suspended from service, and Mondal may go scot–free.
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The Sharmistha Paloni case
The Anubrata Mondal case has unfolded parallel to the case of Sharmistha Paloni, raising the question, are the police becoming overzealous, selectively?
As Mondal walked out of the Bolpur police station on Thursday, the 22-year-old YouTuber, a Kolkata girl studying law in Pune, got interim bail from the Calcutta High Court. She had posted comments on social media that another Kolkata resident had found offensive to Muslims and complained to the police. Panoli had immediately deleted her post and apologised. But the West Bengal police labelled her an absconder, arrested her from her Gurugram workplace, and brought her to Kolkata, where she was sent to judicial custody.
The police defended their action, which some felt was high-handed, and denied hounding the student. But it is now under the scanner after a twist in the tale.
The Kolkata resident Wazahat Khan Qadri Rashidi, who had filed the complaint against Panoli, is now charged with the same offence: posting material on social media that is offensive, in this case, to Hindus. Rashidi is absconding, reportedly since Sunday. All eyes are now on how quickly the West Bengal police track him down.
All eyes are also on how swiftly the police pursue the case against Anubrata Mondal, so that it is brought to a logical conclusion.
Monideepa Banerjie is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)