Mamata Banerjee defends arrest of professor over cartoons

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today defended the arrest of a Jadavpur University professor over his cartoons on the internet putting her in poor light and she blamed CPI(M) 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.

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.