Bengal Police Arrests Activist for 'Sedition' Over Post Mocking Traffic Awareness Campaign |
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Kolkata: The West Bengal Police’s decision to arrest a social media user over a sarcastic post has triggered fresh allegations of state overreach and selective enforcement, with rights groups warning that the criminal law which is believed to be a stand-in for the earlier sedition law is increasingly being used to police online speech.
Amit Nandi, a social activist from Chinsurah, Hooghly, was arrested on February 14. The first information report against him mentioned a Facebook post in which Nandi had mocked a traffic-safety message displayed at a traffic post in an area which falls under the jurisdiction of the Kanthi police station in Purba Medinipur district.
According to the FIR, Nandi’s post, now deleted, had said, “Gari kheye mod chalabben na (don’t drink cars and drive alcohol)” – a play on the “mod kheye gari chalaben na (don’t drive after drinking alcohol)” slogan used by police. Nandi’s post was made on January 27.
The FIR was filed on January 28 by Sub-Inspector Dilip Gupta, who handles social media-related matters at Kanthi police station. In it, the post was described as a “distortion” of a public-awareness message that the district police had been uploading on its official page.
Gupta told The Wire, “The post is part of a planned smear campaign against the police. He distorted an official public-awareness post. Because he has many followers, the post was shared widely. Since this incident is defamatory to the police, a complaint has been filed against him.”
Nandi has been booked under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita’s sections 152, 197(1)(d), which deals with the dissemination of false information endangering India’s sovereignty, unity or security), 351, which deals with criminal intimidation, and 356(2), which looks at defamation. The most serious is Section 152, the BNS provision that has effectively replaced the IPC’s sedition law (Section 124A), dealing with acts alleged to endanger India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity. It carries life imprisonment or up to seven years plus fine, and is cognisable and non-bailable.
The FIR says that post contains “wrong, unverified and baseless allegations, which are clearly intended to: Lower the dignity and prestige of the Police Department, harm the reputation and public image of the police, [and] create mistrust and negative perception among the general public against the police administration.”
Police have also claimed that the post will have an “[a]dverse impact on police-public relations and public confidence in law enforcement.”
A woman content creator who reportedly shared the same post and was mentioned in the same FIR has not been taken into custody. The post is no longer visible in any of the accused persons’ Facebook timelines.
Nandi, who is known for promoting scientific temper, has frequently criticised both the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and at times the Left as well. Recently, he posted repeatedly about the Kolkata warehouse fire that killed 21 and the arrest of a social activist involved in facilitating his deceased mother’s cornea donation, targeting the state government’s actions.
Questioning the arrest, the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights said the move fits into a broader pattern of policing that treats criticism as a law-and-order problem.
“In all BJP-ruled states, there is regular surveillance of social media to identify those opposing the government or leaders and to ensure they are punished. Strangely, the Trinamool government has taken the same path. The government is not allowing dissenting views to be expressed. Those of us opposing SIR, our social media accounts have all been shut down,” alleged Rajit Sur, the state secretary of APDR. Sur believes that his own Facebook account too has been suspended by Meta following a directive from the West Bengal law enforcement agency.
For many in West Bengal, the arrest also revives memories of the arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, the Jadavpur University professor held in 2012 for forwarding a satirical cartoon targeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, an episode that became emblematic of how criminal law can be weaponised against speech. After years of litigation, Mahapatra was discharged from the case in January 2023, ending an ordeal that drew national attention and civil liberties concerns.
“In our state, there is no rule of law, so the police do not even respect the Supreme Court’s verdict. They want to legitimise the Chief Minister’s mindset and snatch away the right to freedom of expression,” Mahapatra told The Wire. He still has three pending cases from that ordeal.
The arrest comes at a time when the judiciary has been urging restraint in social media-related criminal cases. In February 2026, the Supreme Court upheld a Telangana high court order that laid down safeguards to prevent arbitrary arrests for online political criticism. The order mandates prior inquiry and verification of the complaint’s legitimacy.
Nandi will be produced in the court again on February 23.
With inputs from and translated from the Bengali original by Aparna Bhattacharya.