Bangla Pokkho chief Garga Chatterjee granted bail

Bangla Pokkho chief Garga Chatterjee was on Friday granted bail by a court in the main suo-motu case filed by the Kolkata Police’s cybercrime division, Kausik Maiti, a member of the pro-Bengali advocacy group, told Scroll.

Chatterjee had been arrested on May 12 for allegedly spreading misinformation about Electronic Voting Machines ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections. He was arrested by the cybercrime division following a complaint by an Election Commission official.

While one first information report in the matter was registered against him at the Maidan Police Station based on the polling official’s complaint, another was filed by the cybercrime division after it took suo motu cognisance of the matter.

He had previously received bail in the other matters but had remained in custody in the main suo-motu case. He was granted bail in this on Friday.

Chatterjee is likely to be released on Friday or Saturday, Maiti said.

At the time of his arrest, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand had said that Chatterjee had posted on social media about alleged EVM tampering and malpractices in the election process. “This caused different perceptions among political parties and also created confusion,” ANI had quoted the police chief as having said.

The police had sent notices twice to Chatterjee, asking him to appear for questioning,...

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