“We initiated an investigation,” a senior police official told The Indian Express. As per police sources, a case was registered at the Bidhannagar South police station, while another FIR was filed at Bowbazar police station based on a “specific complaint”.
Chakraborty has been booked on charges of sudden provocation among others.
BJP State President Sukanta Majumdar said, “Once again, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has used the police to unfairly target well-known actor and senior BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty, in an attempt to serve political interests… Mithun Chakraborty is a pride of Bengal and a celebrated name in Indian cinema, with contributions that will always be respected. However, due to political rivalry, the Chief Minister has chosen to falsely accuse him. We strongly condemn her actions and will continue to protest against her authoritarian approach.”
“He was just awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke award instead of felicitating him, the CM is registering a case against him. This CM can only award cases to people,” added Majumdar.
Alleged hate remarks by actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty have heated up the political atmosphere in West Bengal, where six Assembly seats will be seeing by-polls on November 13.
At the event in question, in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chakraborty had said that the party was ready “for anything” for power in West Bengal. The TMC-turned-BJP leader then referred to a statement by senior TMC leader Humayun Kabir in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Kabir, who was censured by the Election Commission for his remarks, had said: “If I do not throw you in the Bhagirathi (river) within two hours, I will leave politics. You are 30%, but we are 70%… If you think you can demolish mosques and Muslims will sit back and relax, you are mistaken.”
Referring to the same, Chakraborty said: “He said that 70% of the population here is Muslim, and 30% Hindu… If you throw in the Bhagirathi river, one day will come when we will also throw… not in the Bhagirathi because it is our mother… but we will bury you on the other side.”
“We need such workers who can fight head-on,” he said, “We need such workers who can challenge, “Come, fire at me, show how many bullets you have in your gun”. If you bring down one fruit from our tree, we will take down four.”
Apart from Shah, Majumdar and BJP Leader of Opposition in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari were present at the event, along with party workers.