Mamata nephew assaults cop, arrested

Already facing flak for the controversial statements on the rising incidents of rape in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee landed into fresh trouble when her nephew slapped a traffic sub-inspector for ‘daring to stop him’.

The incident happened at around 11 am on Wednesday, when Subir Ghosh, a sub-inspector on-duty at Khidderpore in South Kolkata stopped a private car No WB 06H 5686 for violating traffic rules.

According to eye witnesses, initially two persons Amit Kumar Mishra and Nistish Singha alighted from vehicle and started abusing Ghosh of Vidyasagar Traffic Guard. Later, Akash Banerjee who identified himself as Banerjee’s nephew alighted from the vehicle and slapped the sub-inspector infront of a constable and commuters.

In a bid to save them from the irate mob that started agitating infront of the vehicle demanding the arrest of the trio, officer-in-charge of Watgunje police station A K Hashmi rushed to the spot and took Akash, his two friends and the driver of the vehicle Akbar Khan for questioning.  

Surprisingly,  after 15 minutes without even lodging an FIR they were released. But local people  strongly resisted police’s action, and demanded for their arrest. Banerjee who is on tour to North Bengal was on board when the incident happened.

After landing at Bagdogra airport, Banerjee who was on tour to North Bengal, said: “I don’t have any family. People are my family. Anybody who is guilty will will be punished.”

Later, to control the damage, police arrested Akash and his friends. Special Additional Commissioner of Police Shibaji Ghosh, briefing the media, said : “He has violated the traffic and have physically assaulted the traffic police on duty.”  “We are investigating the case and if he is found guilty, necessary action will be taken” Ghosh added. Apart from traffic rules violation charges , Akash has been charged with IPC 353 for  physically assaulting police personnel on-duty which is non-bailable.