Md Salim accuses “vindictive” Mamata Banerjee government of harassing Left activists and their families

CPM politburo member and Member of Parliament Md Salim on Sunday in a statement said that the “tremendously vindictive TMC government” had called his son six times in one week “under various pretext and interrogated him for 16 hours, all this for an innocuous Facebook post”.

Salim’s son, Russel Aziz had posted on his Facebook page on May 14, on the day of an extremely violent panchayat election in West Bengal, that a presiding officer and a polling officer had been killed in Uttar Dinajpur district by Trinamool Congress goons. He had mentioned in the post that this information was “unverified”. Police later said that Aziz’s post had been shared many times and had led to confusion and tension in the area. Later, Md Salim said that it was he, not his son Russel, who was the “real” target of the Trinamool Congress government.

On Sunday, Md Salim further said that Russel had handed over his mobile device, and some data was taken from his social media, but he was not given a seizure list “as per SOP” (standard operating procedure). He added that “this points to sinister means and intentions”. Salim said they had moved court and following the Calcutta High Court’s directions, Russel had submitted the laptop and SIM card at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) office at Bhawani Bhawan on Saturday.

According to the CPM MP, “the gratuitous effort” that the state was putting into the case made it clear it was “politically motivated”. He said that instead, such efforts should be used to monitor and punish those responsible for churning out communal and fake content in the BJP IT Cell and its ancillaries, circulated through paid and fake Facebook and WhatsApp accounts.

But the administration was prioritising in “attacking, pressurising or arresting Left activists and their families”, he said.