Bengali rights activist Garga Chatterjee was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly making provocative remarks about electronic voting machines (EVMs) during the Assembly polls.
Chatterjee, founder of Bangla Pokkho — an organisation that promotes Bengali identity and opposes the imposition of Hindi in Bengal — was arrested from his south Calcutta residence on Tuesday afternoon.
Chatterjee was arrested following a complaint by the district election officer (DEO) of Calcutta North, alleging that his social media posts questioning the functioning of EVMs had triggered public reactions.
"His posts about alleged EVM tampering and some discrepancies in the election process created some sort of confusion among several political parties," police commissioner Ajay Nand said.
"He was twice summoned for questioning, but he did not turn up," he added.
"Shocking that Garga Chatterjee of the group Bangla Pokkho, which translates as On The Side Of Bengal, has been arrested. Is it now a crime to take up the cause of Bengalis?" Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose wrote on X.