Kolkata:
A police case or FIR must be filed straightaway against parliamentarian Tapas Pal of Bengal's Trinamool Congress for threatening to have women relatives of Left workers raped, the Calcutta High Court said today. It also ruled that the Criminal Investigations Department of the state police must investigate the remarks and provide an update in court on September 1.
Mr Pal, whose party is headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had also said that he would have workers of the rival Left killed or shoot them dead himself.
The FIR or First Information Report must be filed within 72 hours, the court said today.
Early in July, footage emerged of Mr Pal addressing Trinamool followers, whipping up sentiments against the Left. "If (the Communists) try to kill and intimidate our workers... I will not spare them. I will let loose my men to rape your women," he said in a June address to followers which was filmed on a smartphone in a district in his constituency of Krishnanagar.
After large public protests in his constituency and national outrage, Mr Pal had apologised for his remarks, describing them as a "gross error of judgement and deeply insensitive".
While Mr Pal has been censured by Ms Banerjee , she did not expel him from her party.
"We have taken whatever steps that are needed to be taken," she had said, asking, "What do you want? Should I kill him?"
But a resident of Nadia district, Biplab Chowdhury, had filed a complaint with the local police station saying that he felt threatened by Mr Pal's pronouncements. While the police did nothing about the complaint, the court today intervened.