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A team of the Kolkata Police arrested vlogger Roddur Roy from Goa on Tuesday, June 7, Tuesday, on charges of criticising Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, in foul language during a Facebook Live session.In the live broadcast, Roy had blamed the Banerjee administration for alleged mismanagement at singer KK’s last concert at Nazrul Mancha in the city. The popular singer had collapsed, shortly after his performance at the auditorium, and was declared ‘brought dead’ by doctors.
“He [Roy] was arrested this afternoon by our officers in Goa. He will be brought to Kolkata on transit remand. Our officers will produce him at a local court there for the remand,” a police officer told PTI. The FIR was lodged at the Chitpur police station on June 4, after a complaint was filed by TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta.
Roy is known for his use of expletives in social media posts. His Facebook Live video – for which he has been arrested – has been removed from the social networking site by authorities.
In addition to the chief minister and her nephew, Roy blamed TMC leaders like Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim and Madan Mitra, along with the Kolkata Police Commissioner for the death of the singer. Local media reports that this is not the first complaint against Roy’s content, even though this is the first time police have acted on a complaint.
Interestingly, BJP leader AnupamHazra, reacting to the development, sought to know why the police had taken no action against the vlogger when he used foul language for national figures like Rabindranath Tagore.“Now that the chief minister and Abhishek Banerjee were abused, the police swung into action. Why should it be so?” he asked.
In April 2012, the Kolkata Police had arrested Jadavpur University chemistry professor, AmbikeshMahapatra, for allegedly forwarding an email containing a cartoon of the chief minister.