The Mamata Banerjee Government on Tuesday suffered yet another judicial setback when the Calcutta High Court upheld an earlier order by the State Human Rights Commission to compensate two victims of the infamous cartoon controversy in which a pro-active police first booked and then assaulted a professor and an engineer for posting innocuous caricatures on the Net mocking Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi.
Apparently what tended to add insult to injury, the State Government was also directed to pay an additional cost of Rs50,000 to the victims within one month of the passing of the order. The court also directed the Government to conduct a departmental inquiry against the Additional Officer in-charge and a sub-inspector who had arrested Professor Mahapatra.
The incident had taken place in April 2012 when Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra of Jadavpur University and his neighbour a retired engineer were arrested and allegedly assaulted by the police for posting what the Chief Minister considered an offensive post.
The cartoon had mocked the Chief Minister’s decision to replace then Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi by Mukul Roy promptly driving the Banerjee to discover in the cartoon a nefarious plan to “assassinate” her by the CPI(M)’s agents.
Even as the police conducted a midnight raid and booked the “culprits” then SHRC Chairman retired Justice Ashok Ganguly took suo motu cognisance of the case and after an inquiry directed the Government to pay a compensation of Rs1 lakh to the victims. The order was however overlooked leading Mahapatra to move the High Court for justice. Reacting to the Tuesday’s decision, the professor said “it is not the time to rejoice as this Government is known for not implementing judicial decisions.” However senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya said the Government officials: the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary could face contempt proceedings if they ignored the order.
Rahul Sinha, State BJP president, said “the High Court order not only gives us hope in the case of Siladitya Chowdhury who was arrested at the instance of the Chief Minister for raising the issue of rising price of fertilisers in a public meeting but also is a big commentary on the totalitarian Government that is being run in Bengal by the Trinamool Congress.”