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Mamata defends arrest of professor over cartoons

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday defended the arrest of a Jadavpur University professor over his cartoons on the internet putting her in poor light and she blamed Communist Party of India-Marxist for raising trivial issues to "malign" her.

"They don't do any work but think of ways to frame me," Banerjee said targeting the CPI-M hours after the police action against Ambikesh Mohapatra that led to a strong condemnation from the academic community and the Left.

"...They commit crimes and once people are arrested they run it on their channels for the whole day," she said at a public event. The Trinamool Congress supremo warned this will not be allowed to go on.

Labour minister Purnendu Bose also justified the arrest, arguing the contents circulated by the professor were not a cartoon, but real pictures, which were nothing but an insult. "Law will take its own course," he said.

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Mamata defends arrest of professor over cartoons

Mohapatra meanwhile claimed some people suspected to be belonging to ruling Trinamool Congress yesterday forced him to sign a letter to say he is a member of CPI-M and that he had intentionally sent the e-mails circulating the cartoons.

Defending the police action, state Transport Minister Madan Mitra alleged that a conspiracy had been hatched to humiliate and malign the chief minister.

Describing Jadavpur University as a 'den of Maoists', Mitra said "besides being educated, one must learn how to be civilised."

"It is unethical to spread canards against any person," he said. Describing the act as 'bad taste' the minister asked the scribes to bring any such act to the notice of the government.

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