Kolkata, Apr 14 : The West Bengal Police will scrutiny social networking sites, especially Facebook, for anti-Mamata contents.
According to the police, they are already probing a defamation complaint for 'maligning' image of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against Facebook and other social sites.
"We are tracking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from where such posts are being made," said a senior police official on Saturday.
A Jadavpur University professor in Kolkata was assaulted and got arrested for sending out caricatured works of Banerjee and posting them on a social networking site, triggering an outrage against the ruling Trinamool Congress even though the teacher was released on bail on Friday.
Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was was arrested early Friday for sending out e-mails with a cartoon of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that is a spoof on characters of the iconic Satyajit Ray detective film of 1974 Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress), was released on bail later in the day.
He was also allegedly beaten up by Trinamool Congress supporters before his arrest, reports said.
Mahapatra's neighbour Subrata Sengupta, who was also arrested for the same reason, was released on bail too.
Chemistry professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and his neighbour Subrata Sengupta were arrested Friday morning from Garia area in Kolkata for projecting Banerjee, former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and Railway Minister Mukul Roy in "a poor light in the cartoon", thereby violating sections of the IT Act which entails using computer to do offence.
Charges of eve-teasing (Section 509 of the IPC), defamation (Section 500 of the IPC, humiliating a woman (Section 114 of the IPC and Section 66 A (b) were also slapped.
They were produced before local court later on Friday.
The 'controversial' cartoon is a caricature of filmmaker Satyajit Ray's thriller Sonar Kella. It has been doing rounds on the internet after the Trinamool Congress supremo forced Trivedi to resign from his post over his Rail Budget.
Mahapatra uploaded the cartoon on his Facebook account, besides sending it to 65 people via e-mail, reports said.
Meanwhile, outrage over the action on the professor followed while political leaders reacted too.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari played it safe saying he would get the inputs from the state unit of the party- which is a partner in the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal but is at loggerheads- and comment but said the party stands for freedom of expression.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat said the actions reminded one of the Emergency.
"It is a clear assault on the democratic rights and freedom of expression," said Karat, while her colleague in the party's Polit Bureau Sitaram Yechury said the action is "worse than Emergency".
West Bengal's intelligentsia, which had backed Mamata Banerjee against the previous Left Front government in her fight on land acquisition issues, was livid on the development.
"This is a cause for great worry. Any cartoon used to be taken in the right spirit previously. But now the ruling class is reacting with high-handedness," said theatre and TV personality Kaushik Sen in his reaction before a news channel.
Academician Sunanda Sanyal said the government is actually making the way for the Left to come back to power.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter reactions poured in over the action of the Mamata government.
The cartoon in question, where Mamata was shown vanishing former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi "vanishing" to bring in a new railway minister (Mukul Roy), went viral on Facebook.
Mamata Banerjee earlier drew criticism over selection of only a handful of newspapers for requisition by the state-run libraries leaving out the state's largest circulated Bengali and English dailies.
Her government's decision to cut down on portions on Marxism and Bolshevik Revolution also had drawn flak of people and political classes. (IBNS)
According to the police, they are already probing a defamation complaint for 'maligning' image of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against Facebook and other social sites.
"We are tracking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from where such posts are being made," said a senior police official on Saturday.
A Jadavpur University professor in Kolkata was assaulted and got arrested for sending out caricatured works of Banerjee and posting them on a social networking site, triggering an outrage against the ruling Trinamool Congress even though the teacher was released on bail on Friday.
Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was was arrested early Friday for sending out e-mails with a cartoon of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that is a spoof on characters of the iconic Satyajit Ray detective film of 1974 Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress), was released on bail later in the day.
He was also allegedly beaten up by Trinamool Congress supporters before his arrest, reports said.
Mahapatra's neighbour Subrata Sengupta, who was also arrested for the same reason, was released on bail too.
Chemistry professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and his neighbour Subrata Sengupta were arrested Friday morning from Garia area in Kolkata for projecting Banerjee, former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and Railway Minister Mukul Roy in "a poor light in the cartoon", thereby violating sections of the IT Act which entails using computer to do offence.
Charges of eve-teasing (Section 509 of the IPC), defamation (Section 500 of the IPC, humiliating a woman (Section 114 of the IPC and Section 66 A (b) were also slapped.
They were produced before local court later on Friday.
The 'controversial' cartoon is a caricature of filmmaker Satyajit Ray's thriller Sonar Kella. It has been doing rounds on the internet after the Trinamool Congress supremo forced Trivedi to resign from his post over his Rail Budget.
Mahapatra uploaded the cartoon on his Facebook account, besides sending it to 65 people via e-mail, reports said.
Meanwhile, outrage over the action on the professor followed while political leaders reacted too.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari played it safe saying he would get the inputs from the state unit of the party- which is a partner in the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal but is at loggerheads- and comment but said the party stands for freedom of expression.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat said the actions reminded one of the Emergency.
"It is a clear assault on the democratic rights and freedom of expression," said Karat, while her colleague in the party's Polit Bureau Sitaram Yechury said the action is "worse than Emergency".
West Bengal's intelligentsia, which had backed Mamata Banerjee against the previous Left Front government in her fight on land acquisition issues, was livid on the development.
"This is a cause for great worry. Any cartoon used to be taken in the right spirit previously. But now the ruling class is reacting with high-handedness," said theatre and TV personality Kaushik Sen in his reaction before a news channel.
Academician Sunanda Sanyal said the government is actually making the way for the Left to come back to power.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter reactions poured in over the action of the Mamata government.
The cartoon in question, where Mamata was shown vanishing former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi "vanishing" to bring in a new railway minister (Mukul Roy), went viral on Facebook.
Mamata Banerjee earlier drew criticism over selection of only a handful of newspapers for requisition by the state-run libraries leaving out the state's largest circulated Bengali and English dailies.
Her government's decision to cut down on portions on Marxism and Bolshevik Revolution also had drawn flak of people and political classes. (IBNS)
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