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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday directed the police to take stringent action, including arrests, against those making derogatory remarks on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on social media, and said the law would apply equally to MPs, MLAs and government officials.

Adhikari's direction to the police came days after BJP Rajya Sabha MP Nagendranath Roy, popularly known as Ananta Maharaj, described Netaji as a “war criminal” and questioned his leadership and the role of the Azad Hind Fauj in India’s freedom struggle. Roy hails from Cooch Behar in the northern part of the state.

Speaking to reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna, Adhikari said several legislators and ministers from north Bengal had approached him with complaints over posts and memes concerning Netaji.

“Stringent action will be taken against those who have spread misinformation and made memes about Netaji. They will be arrested," he said.

On whether police will take any action against Ananta Maharaj, Adhikari said, "I will not name anyone, but the law is equal for MLAs, MPs, leaders of any party, government officials, or police officers." Adhikari asked those who had posted such content to immediately remove them and apologise, while cautioning that deleting the posts would not necessarily protect them from legal action.

“Those who have shown such audacity should know that this is not acceptable to us,” the chief minister said.

He said the state cyber cell has already been directed to initiate action against those responsible for such posts on Facebook and other social media platforms.

“On the soil of West Bengal, I will not allow Netaji to be insulted. The police have also been asked to make arrests,” Adhikari said.

The chief minister said the police would act independently in such cases and that the state government would not interfere in the investigation or in deciding what action should be taken.

He also said the government was in touch with Meta over the matter. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)