Already in the face of attack on a host of issues, including the Saradha scam, the Bengal Government on Monday hardened its stance on the cartoongate controversy rejecting the State Human Rights Commission’s penal recommendations against the offending police officers who had crossed their brief arresting a university professor for disseminating a cartoon on the Net ridiculing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her two senior party leaders Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi.
The Commission had earlier asked the State Government to start proceedings against the two police officers who had arrested Ambikesh Mahapatra, the Jadavpur University professor, and his neighbour, a retired engineer, for circulating a one-line joke on the internet. It had also recommended compensation of `50,000.
The joke was around removal of Trivedi from the Railway Minister’s post and replacing him by Mukul Roy.
After sitting for more than a year on its letter, the Government has on Monday written back to the Commission about its rejection of the recommendations, Commission sources said, adding the HRC was also writing back to the Government rejecting its decision not to accept its report.