West Bengal: After 11 years clean chit to the professor who forwarded Mamta Banerjee’s cartoon, Ambikesh Mahapatra said – my fight against every atrocity
West Bengal: Ambikesh Mahapatra said that his fight is against all kinds of atrocities.
West Bengal News: Jadavpur University Professor Ambikesh Mohapatra, arrested for forwarding on social media a cartoon related to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the then Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Mukul Roy, has been sentenced to 11 years of legal imprisonment. Court has got relief after the fight.
On April 12, 2012, a case was registered against Jadavpur University Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra of West Bengal’s Jadavpur University. After which he was arrested. After a long legal battle, he finally got a clean chit from a lower court in Kolkata on Friday (January 20, 2023).
My fight against every tyranny: Ambikesh Mohapatra
Speaking to India Today, Mohapatra said that his fight is against all forms of tyranny. The Alipore District Court asked the lower court to discharge the professor from the criminal case. Professor Ambikesh Mohapatra said, ‘There was a kind of conspiracy by the Bengal government, the police administration and the ruling party to stop any kind of voice against the government.’
Professor Mahapatra was arrested on April 12, 2012
On 12 April 2012, Mohapatra sent the cartoon to an email group of members of a housing society on the southern outskirts of Kolkata. Someone from the group lodged a complaint with the local police station. Subsequently, Mohapatra and the then secretary of the housing complex, Subrata Sengupta, were arrested by the police and booked under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act (IT Act), 2000.
Both Professor Ambikesh Mohapatra and Sengupta were released on bail, yet the case continued. The police continued to pursue Mohapatra even after the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the IT Act in 2016 and asked all state governments to close and drop all cases under the Act.
