Facebook cuffs on civic guard - Youth abuses CM on social network, Trinamul leader files case

TT, Malda, Oct. 15: A civic police guard was arrested last night for allegedly making indecent remarks against the chief minister on Facebook following a police complaint against him by a Trinamul leader.

Bapi Pal, 25, was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by a court in Chanchal today. Police sources said Pal was booked under Sections 66A (for sending offensive messages through communication service) and 67 (for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Prasun Banerjee, the superintendent of police, Malda, gave a brief reaction. “We have arrested Bapi Pal, a youth from Harishchandrapur, for making indecent posts on Facebook. A complaint has been filed in this regard.”

Pal is not the first person to be arrested for supposedly objectionable Facebook posts against the chief minister. Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and his septuagenarian neighbour Subrata Sengupta in Calcutta were allegedly harassed and arrested by the police in April 2012 for circulating an Internet joke lampooning chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Mahapatra’s post had no foul language, unlike the charge brought against Pal. Mahapatra is fighting a court battle claiming compensation from the police for the harassment.

Pal’s family, who reside in Janakinagar village in Harishchandrapur, said he was frustrated as he had not received wages for the three months he had worked. Harishchandrapur is 85km from Malda town.

Administrative sources in Calcutta said the majority of civic police guards were yet to be paid for the past three months because of the financial crunch the government faced.

An officer of Harishchandrapur police station said Pal’s had used foul language in his Sunday Facebook post while addressing Mamata Banerjee on a page called “Mamata Banerjee FAN Club (m.b.f.c)”. “The post came to the notice of a local Trinamul leader and he filed a complaint at Harishchandrapur police station. We conducted an investigation and arrested Pal from his home last night,” the officer said.

The post has been removed from the fan page and Pal’s own page. The fan page is administered by Trinamul supporters and its not the official Facebook page of the chief minister or her party.

The complaint against Pal was lodged by Jamirul Islam, the Malda district president of the Trinamul’s minority cell.

“I saw an offensive post on the Facebook page and found it had been made by Bapi Pal, who hails from Harishchandrapur. I immediately approached police and filed a complaint against him. Such scurrilous posts cannot be tolerated and we condemn it,” said Islam.

Tobaraq Hussain, the Harishchandrapur II block president of Trinamul, said: “The youth has insulted the chief minister, our party and the people of our state. Our leaders have found it offensive and have complained to the police. It is good that he has been arrested.”

Pal, the youngest of three brothers, had completed graduation from Chanchal College three years back. Mukul Pal, his father, is a retired railway employee. “He worked for three months or so, but did not get his wages. For the past four months, he has been sitting idle at home. He has not been called for work either. This left him frustrated,” the father said.

Civic police guards are recruited from among local people by district police for traffic control duties during a crisis or a VIP visit. A civic police guard is paid Rs 141.80 a day by the home department.

An organisation for civic police volunteers said Pal’s comment was “undesirable, but the state government and the chief minister must understand the frustration of thousands of youths who have been kept off their jobs for months”.

Sanjay Pouriya, the state president of the Paschimbanga Civic Police Association, said: “Around 4,800 such youths are sitting idle in Malda alone.”