Kolkata Cops Question Mithun Chakraborty Over Election Speech

The 71-year-old, a star campaigner for the BJP, is being probed for reciting a line from his hit Bengali movie.

Chakraborty served as a Rajya Sabha MP representing the TMC for two years, before resigning in 2016.

(Photo: Accessed by The Quint)

Bharatiya Janata Party leader (BJP) and actor Mithun Chakraborty was questioned by the Kolkata Police on Tuesday, 16 June, over a controversial speech during the Assembly election campaign in West Bengal.

This comes after the actor moved Calcutta High Court to cancel the FIR, but the court directed him to join the questioning virtually.

The 71-year-old, a star campaigner for the BJP, is being probed based on a complaint against him for reciting a line from his movie: "Marbo ekhane lash porbe shoshane (Will hit you here and the body will land at the crematorium)." The dialogue is from his hit Bengali movie MLA Fatakeshto.

The complaint stated that these dialogues were enough to incite violence, reported IANS.

The actor, however, told the court that he had just uttered popular dialogues from his films, adding that it was for entertainment and that he is innocent and in no way connected with any offence as alleged by the complainant.

Cops have allege that his speech played a role in the post-poll violence in the state.

Chakraborty, who has been Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP in the past, joined the BJP on 7 March, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(With inputs from IANS.)