The arrest of Trinamool Congress functionary Majid Ansari in a 2023 extortion and intimate-image case triggered rival protests outside Kolkata’s Amherst Street Police Station, bringing the police investigation into a wider political dispute over the Chorbagan stampede.
Ansari was arrested on Thursday night and produced before a court on Friday, which remanded him to police custody for five days, according to a report by the Times of India. The case follows a complaint filed by a woman on October 2, 2023, alleging that private photographs and other personal material were taken from her mobile phone, followed by demands for Rs 20 lakh and property.
The complainant, identified in the report as a resident of MG Road, alleged that intimate photographs, videos and voice recordings were circulated online after she resisted demands that also included sexual favours. An FIR has been registered against 12 individuals and their associates.
The report said the case names Shah Faisal Raza as the prime accused, along with Junaid Alam and Md Sohail. Raza allegedly accessed the complainant’s mobile phone without consent and copied private photographs, videos and chat records involving her former husband. The alleged extortion demand included ownership of a flat on MM Barman Street.
Ansari has not been named as a key conspirator in the case, according to the report. His lawyer told the court that Ansari was in Delhi and argued that there was no evidence substantiating the allegations against him. Ansari himself claimed that he had been arrested for speaking against the BJP.
The arrest became politically significant because Ansari had been seen alongside TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh during the party’s demonstration over the Chorbagan stampede. The TMC described the arrest as an attempt to target workers who had raised concerns about administrative shortcomings linked to the incident.
Ghosh led a sit-in protest outside Amherst Street Police Station. In a social media post quoted by the Times of India, he alleged that instead of pursuing those responsible for the Chorbagan incident, the police were attempting to silence people protesting over it.
The BJP staged a counter-protest at the police station. BJP’s Baranagar MLA Sajal Ghosh accused Kunal Ghosh of shielding people described by the party as “anti-national”. The rival demonstrations placed the police station at the centre of a dispute involving an ongoing criminal investigation, political mobilisation and demands for accountability over the stampede.
The immediate legal issue remains the allegations in the 2023 complaint and the role, if any, attributed to Ansari in the case. The court’s five-day police remand will determine the next stage of the investigation, while the competing party claims have not been independently established in the supplied report.
