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Top cop, TMC man framed Jadavpur University professor
-The Times of India

Glaring lapses in the investigation of the case against Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra have come to light, which all but prove that the aim of the probe was to teach the academic a lesson. A senior police officer and a local Trinamool Congress leader literally engineered the case against Prof Mahapatra when none existed.

A police officer who did not want to be named said Amit Sardar, who lodged the complaint against the chemistry professor, was not even among the 65 recipients of the email of the cartoon lampooning the chief minister. According to procedure, the police should have first seized the computer in the presence of forensic experts from which the "impugned" email was sent. But investigators can't answer how, without seizing and examining the machine, they arrested Mahapatra on the basis of a mere printout.

Neither did police ask the complainants why they had come to the police station 21 days after the mail was circulated. Mahapatra was booked under bailable charges, which suggest he could have been released on a personal bond from the police station. But he was never given this option and had to spend the night in lockup. The case diary corroborates that the police made no attempt to make him aware of his rights. After Mahapatra was produced before the magistrate, the state counsel sought judicial remand until April 27.

All these points make it abundantly clear that there was tremendous pressure on the police to keep Mahapatra behind bars. Finally, the case amounts, at the very most, to defamation, a non-cognisable offence, and requires a warrant for arrest to take place. But the police snapped up the complaint, turned it into an FIR and charged Prof Mahapatra with "insulting the modesty of a woman" - a false charge that gave the police the power to keep the professor and his 70-plus neighbour to spend at least one night in jail.

On Sunday, Trinamool Congress tried damage control with an MP close to Mamata saying the CM was "merely told that what was being circulated was obscene". He said since other details weren't mentioned, she defended the arrest. "After returning to Kolkata, she took stock of the situation and instructed the police to immediately take a complaint from Mahapatra and probe the case," the MP claimed.

Sources told TOI that a group of local Trinamool men led by a block level leader Arup Mukherjee, complainant Amit Sardar and their aides went to East Jadavpur police station on Thursday night. The officer in charge was on leave and his deputy was officiating. This duty officer was initially reluctant to lodge the complaint, which led Mukherjee and his aides to contact their party higher ups. Sources said Kajal Chakraborty, Trinamool block president, was among those aware of the shenanigans.

Mukherjee and his aides flaunted their connections, at which the duty officer called up his superior, who in turn sought the officer in charge's advice.

The OC advised his officers to inform divisional deputy commissioner Sujay Chanda. It was late in the night and the DC hesitated to contact police commissioner R K Pachnanda and preferred to inform another senior officer known for his "excellent" connections with top ruling party leaders, including Mamata.

Meanwhile, an influential Trinamool leader who represents south-west Kolkata in the assembly was informed by party workers about the incident. They also told him that the police were hesitant to take action. Sources hinted that the alleged "police inaction" made the leader unhappy and he asked his local leaders to contact the divisional DC. The latter, however, asked the matter to be referred to his superior whom he had earlier contacted.

Some officers now say that the politician must have communicated the matter to this "senior" police officer and the police sprung into action to arrest Mahapatra and septuagenarian Subrata Sengupta.