Minakshi Mukherjee Files Complaint with Kolkata Police Over Fake Facebook Account Spreading Malicious Content

TMC ecosystem, including party leader Kunal Ghosh, condemned post and attacked Mukherjee, demanding her apology

Minakshi Mukherjee : File picture

Joyjit Ghosh, TT, Calcutta, 27.10.24: DYFI state secretary and CPM leader Minakshi Mukherjee lodged a complaint with Kolkata police on Saturday, seeking action against a fake Facebook account that she alleged was using her name to spread provocative content with malicious intent.

In her complaint to the cyber police, Mukherjee listed the links of her three social media handles — two Facebook accounts and an account on X — and said that barring those, other profiles using her name and pictures were fake.

"Other than the three accounts mentioned above, I am seeking legal action against all other profiles and accounts that are using my name and pictures," Mukherjee stated in her complaint.

Stating the reason for seeking action against the "operator of the Facebook ID and conspirator", Mukherjee said in her complaint: "Without my knowledge whatever is being propagated by the (Facebook) page is not true, false and politically motivated that is hurting my social respect and that of our political party and organisation...."

Sources said this matter surfaced on Saturday when an "AI-generated" provocative and malicious post using Mukherjee's name targeted senior Trinamool leader Firhad Hakim and a particular community.

The post then went viral.

The Trinamool ecosystem, including party leader Kunal Ghosh, condemned the post and attacked Mukherjee, demanding her apology.

"(She) should tender an apology after deleting the post immediately," Ghosh wrote on his X handle.

However, hours before Ghosh took to X, Mukherjee, shocked by the malicious content of the post shared by a Facebook page that used her name and picture, took to her official social media handles to share the links of her accounts.

In her post, Mukherjee also stated she had no link with any other social media account using her name and picture.

"I am not aware of the existence of any such account," Mukherjee wrote on X.

"Much before Kunal Ghosh took to X handle, I alerted people about my three official social media accounts. What Ghosh did shows a political conspiracy behind the entire episode. Those behind the fake post do not want Bengal's good. I am seeking legal action against the operator of the fake Facebook ID and have lodged a complaint with Kolkata police," Mukherjee told The Telegraph.

The DYFI leader also added that on October 14, through a Facebook post, she had alerted people against fake social media profiles using her name and pictures doing the rounds.

The controversy got a further twist when some Trinamool workers filed a complaint with Chetla police in Calcutta against Mukherjee for the post.

"If it is a fake post, the cyber crime cell of Kolkata police should investigate and take action against the guilty for this communal and barbaric act," Calcutta mayor Hakim said.