Kolkata, Nov 14 : Trinamool Congress (TMC) National General Secretary and Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday accused the West Bengal Police of registering fresh First Information Reports (FIRs) against him daily in false cases solely to harass him.
Banerjee made the remarks after emerging from the Bhabanipur Police Station in South Kolkata, where he underwent nearly five hours of questioning in connection with an FIR over a controversial social media post targeting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the Gujarati community.
"The investigating officers are doing their job. Whenever the officers called me, I went and never avoided facing the questioning. I did not run away anywhere. I am being called in various false cases. I am going on the orders of the Calcutta High Court. I will go if called in the future too," Banerjee told reporters outside the police station.
The case stems from a social media post published by Banerjee, nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on May 2 this year. Following a complaint lodged by Bhabanipur resident Arnabkanti Das, police registered an FIR on May 27.
In his complaint, Das objected to Banerjee allegedly describing the CEC as a "puppet of an anti-Bengali Gujarati gang", contending that referring to the entire Gujarati community as a gang or criminal group promoted enmity and hatred against a specific community despite his constitutional oath as an MP.
Clarifying his use of the phrase before the media after his questioning, Banerjee said he had explained the context of the remark to the investigating officers.
"I used the term 'Gujarati Gang' in the context of a statement from BJP leader Amit Malviya, where he described the 'Bangla' or 'Bengali' language as a 'Bangladeshi' language. Since when is it a 'Bangladeshi' language? So, I explained to the investigating officer about the context," the Diamond Harbour MP said.
Meanwhile, in a separate development on Friday, another FIR was registered against Banerjee at the Girish Park Police Station in North Kolkata over alleged derogatory remarks and threats directed at a serving Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in the state.
A notice in that case was served at his Kalighat residence on Friday night, directing him to appear at the Girish Park Police Station by 12 noon on November 20 for questioning.
