The Bengal Police on Tuesday served notices to Aam Janata Unnayan Party chief Humayun Kabir, asking him to appear before its officers for allegedly making provocative and inflammatory public remarks in the recent past.
The notices were served within 24 hours of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari slamming the Nowda MLA in the assembly, stating that the time has come to "teach him (Kabir) a lesson".
Kabir has been directed to appear before the investigating officer at the Shaktipur Police Station in Murshidabad district on July 3 and before the Rejinagar PS on July 4 in connection with separate cases registered against him.
Uniformed policemen were seen reaching Kabir's residence in Murshidabad district on Tuesday morning and handing over the summons, which, the police said, were received by a member of the politician's family on account of his absence at his home.
Earlier in the day, the Murshidabad Police arrested three local leaders of the AJUP - Aminul Haq, Anisur Rahaman and Golam Mostafa - who are suspected to have organised the public meetings where Kabir made the alleged derogatory remarks having the potential of disrupting communal peace, the police said.
"Those who may be wondering whether the police will follow up on the cases registered, let me assure them that we will first pick up those who had invited Kabir to those meetings and then we will come for him," Adhikari had said in the assembly on Monday.
Issuing a stern warning to Kabir and asking him to maintain control over his language and public behaviour, Adhikari said this would be the "last time that the Nowda MLA makes such reckless and unrestrained public speeches" and claimed that the politician made such "inflammatory" comments to polarise voters for a bypoll the AJUP leader's son is likely to fight after he vacated the Rejinagar seat.
Kabir made the alleged remarks at public meetings in Shaktipur on June 8 and again at Rejinagar on June 26, both in Murshidabad district, with an alleged track record of making similar provocative public statements in the past.
A viral video, the authenticity of which PTI could not independently verify, shows Kabir at the Shaktipur rally lashing out at local BJP leaders in connection with a local political fallout.
"The day I mobilise thousands of Muslims and take to the streets, I will strike so hard that there won't be anyone left to even carry the BJP party flag," Kabir was heard saying.
"It's good they have won the state polls, but I told the CM to stop bragging in Murshidabad. We have seen many such cases filed against us...But the day they cross their limit and breach my level of tolerance, I will not consider who the CM and the SP are, nor will I take into account who stands where," he added, taking on the police and the BJP together.
In his sharp retort, Adhikari drew examples of incarcerated TMC strongmen Shahjahan Sheikh from Sandeshkhali, Canning leader Saokat Mollah and former Falta MLA Jahangir Khan and warned that the fate of Nowda MLA could go the same way if he did not mend his public behaviour.
"Enough is enough. It's time to teach (Kabir) a lesson. Let him listen with his ears wide open: I will not allow him to make such reckless and unrestrained public statements ever again. I will not only make him withdraw his statements, but also ensure he thinks multiple times before making such remarks. I assure this House that this would be the last time he makes such comments in public," Adhikari had said in the assembly.
Softening his tone in his response to Adhikari's statement, Kabir said his remarks were not directed against the government, but against those who became BJP leaders in Murshidabad after the assembly poll results and were threatening him and his supporters.
"I responded politically to those who attacked me and the supporters of my party. If someone chooses to hurl stones at me, they cannot expect to be treated with rasgullas," he told reporters outside the assembly premises on Monday.
Kabir said that he too wanted a regime change in Bengal to establish an environment of good governance, but alleged that members of the minority community in his area were being unfairly treated after the change of guard in the state.
"If the people of Rejinagar, Nowda, Beldanga and elsewhere in Murshidabad are subjected to biased treatment from the current dispensation, then my fight will continue, and I am ready to be imprisoned," he said.
Asked to respond to the police summons served on Kabir, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said, "Humayun should realise that Bengal is not under the rule of Babar."