Congress leader and Calcutta High Court counsel Kaustav Bagchi, who was arrested for allegedly making derogatory comments against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday filed a petition at the same court challenging his arrest.

The matter will come up for hearing at the single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha on Wednesday. Late night on March 3, a team of Kolkata Police reached Bagchi residence and questioned him about some comments he made about the chief minister.

After night-long questioning, the cops arrested him next morning on March 4 and on the same day he was presented at a lower court in Kolkata. The court granted him bail on the same day. Now, he has moved the Calcutta High Court terming his arrest as being done illegally.

After the bypoll results for the Sagardighi Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district was announced on March 2, in which Left-backed Congress candidate Baryon Biswas trounced Trinamool Congress nominee Debasish Bandopadhyay by 23,000 votes, the chief minister had launched a scathing attack against state Congress President and veteran party MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, referring to his daughter’s suicide in 2006.

On March 3, Bagchi held a press conference where he referred to a book written by former IAS officer Deepak Kumar Ghosh, which reportedly has some references about the personal life of the Chief Minister.

Bagchi said that since Banerjee has started making personal attacks by referring to the suicide of Chowdhury’s daughter, he would now counter them by circulating soft copies of Ghosh’s book through WhatsApp. That followed the police raid at his residence and his arrest.

The arrest evoked strong criticism from all corners, including from within the Trinamool Congress.

(This article has been published via a syndicated feed)