Provocative speech: Complaint against Buddha

The district Congress has filed a complaint against West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee accusing him of making "provocative" speech at a public meeting in Coochbehar.

Alleging the police higher-ups failed to initiate follow-up action after the complaint by him was lodged yesterday, president of district Youth Congress Avijit Dey Bhaumik on Tuesday demanded police inquiry into the complaint at the earliest.

SP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay said on-duty sub-inspector at Kotwali police station Swapan Deb noted the complaint against the Chief Minister without consulting higher officials and he has asked DSP (Sadar) to inquire the circumstances behind the duty officer recording the complaint.

Demanding no action should be taken against the junior officer "as he acted within the law," YC supporters demonstrated in front of the SP's office today.

Joining the fray, district Trinamool Congress vice-president Niranjan Dutta said the TC would hold demonstrations for the rest of the month protesting against the speech of Bhattacharjee on February 13. The TC also demanded no action should be taken against the duty officer.

Special IGP (North Bengal), D T Lepcha promised to look into the matter. On February 13, Bhattacharjee warned the Trinamool not to foment trouble in West Bengal and called upon the Leftist workers to give a fitting reply if TC continued to tread "this path".