Police have registered an FIR against actors Parambrata Chatterjee and Swastika Mukherjee for alleged abetment and instigation of violence through a 2021 social media post.
The case has been filed under Sections 153A(1)(a) and 109 of the IPC. If proven in court, the charges may attract up to three years of imprisonment. The two will be summoned for examination, police sources said.
A senior Kolkata Police officer said: “Around 4pm on May 2, 2021, Parambrata Chatterjee and Swastika Mukherjee... abetted and instigated through a post on social media (Twitter), causing disharmony, feeling of enmity, hatred and ill-will among different religious, racial, and regional groups.”
The officer claimed: “As a result, several people from different parts of Bengal and BJP supporters got severely injured, murdered and raped by TMC workers after the declaration of the election results in 2021.”
The charges relate to promoting communal hatred or disharmony, and conspiring or abetting the commission of a crime.
Calls and messages to both actors went unanswered on Friday.
A director associated with a platform that had earlier campaigned against the technicians’ federation said social media is a “massive pleasure pool” and that Parambrata is a “good target”, acknowledging his “courage to wage a long battle” against a powerful opponent.
The technicians’ federation, which many said was a trade union functioning like a regulatory body, was headed by Swarup Biswas, brother of Trinamool leader Aroop Biswas. Parambrata was among those who had filed a PIL against the federation, seeking greater freedom in the industry.
“Many who were silent then switched allegiances immediately after the election results,” said a director.
A producer who has worked with Parambrata called it “unfair to dig out a five-year-old social media post to settle a score”, though he added that the actors could have avoided such posts.
The post in question on Parambrata’s timeline read: “Aj biswa rograni divas ghoshito hok (let today be declared as world drubbing day).” Swastika had replied: “Hahahah Hok Hok (laughing with endorsement).”
