FORMER West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday appeared at the Calcutta High Court as a counsel to argue in a public interest litigation (PIL) filed at the division bench of Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen on the post-poll violence following the results of the recently-concluded Assembly polls. The PIL was filed by Sirsanya Banerjee, a counsel with the Calcutta High Court and the son of senior advocate and four-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member, Kalyan Banerjee. Sirsanya Banerjee was the Trinamool Congress candidate from Uttarpara Assembly constituency in Hooghly district in the recently concluded Assembly polls. However, he was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and former National Security Guard (NSG) commandant, Dipanjan Chakraborty, by a margin of over 10,000 votes.

 

Later chaotic scenes unfolded at the High Court when Banerjee, who was trying to exit the premises following a post-poll violence hearing, faced “thief” slogans from a section of lawyers. TMC leader and advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who accompanied her to court, alleged that lawyers under the influence of the BJP attempted to heckle the former Chief Minister, and the party’s legal team had a tough time safely escorting her out. “The court is not a place to publicly brand someone a thief or a dacoit. We can also say similar things about Opposition party leaders. The former CM had gone to the court to argue a petition, and we faced immense difficulty while leaving the place after the hearing got over. “If this can happen to Mamata Banerjee, imagine what’s happening currently with the ordinary workers of the TMC across West Bengal,” Kalyan Banerjee said. According to the petitioner, several TMC leaders and workers were allegedly forced to flee their homes after the polls.