Kolkata, May 29 (IANS) A single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Friday, granted interim protection to actor Parambrata Chatterjee from coercive police action including arrests in relation to the FIR registered against him last week at Gariahat Police Station under South Division of the Kolkata Police, accusing him of making a provocative social media statement, and instigating post-poll violence after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.

On May 27, the actor approached the single-judge vacation bench of Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee of the Calcutta High Court, which is under summer vacation now, with the plea for quashing the FIR registered against him.

The matter came up for hearing in the afternoon, and at the end of the hearing, Justice Mukherjee granted the actor interim protection from coercive police action, including arrest.

However, maintaining that the investigation into the matter by the police will continue, Justice Mukherjee directed the actor to fully cooperate with the police in the process of the probe. The single-judge vacation bench also directed Kolkata Police to submit a detailed report on the matter on the next date of hearing.

The FIR against Chatterjee was filed on the basis of a complaint filed by Joydeep Sen, an advocate. Based on that complaint, an FIR was also registered against actress Swastika Mukherjee, the daughter of renowned Bengali actor Late Santu Mukherjee, for allegedly endorsing the alleged provocative social media post.

Although Mukherjee responded to the notice of interrogation and appeared at the Gariahat Police Station on May 23 to face the questioning, Chatterjee did not do so.

Instead, he approached the Calcutta High Court with a plea for quashing the FIR registered against him. It is worth noting that BJP MLA and Bengali actor Rudranil Ghosh had called a meeting at Technicians Studio on Wednesday. Parambrata was also present there.

The actor spoke about how he had to support the previous Trinamool Congress government under pressure from former state Minister Aroop Biswas and his brother Swarup Biswas.

He said, “That day, I did everything by looking at the face of my newborn child and gritting my teeth. There was no other way. I did not come here to take personal revenge against anyone. But since I consider you a family member, I shared the personal insult. May such a situation not arise in the future.”

A video clip of this statement has also gone viral on social media, with many slamming the actor for changing colours so soon. After making such a comment, a complaint was filed against him.

–IANS

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