Kolkata man arrested for threatening Trinamool MP

A 32-year-old man was arrested here on Wednesday for sending threatening messages to Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandyopadhyay, police said.

Leader of the Trinamool in the Lok Sabha, Bandyopadhyay had received the threat messages on his mobile phone on Monday night and subsequently lodged a complaint the next day with the city's Taltala police station.

"We have arrested a person named Dipanjan Mitra for sending threat messages to Bandyopadhyay. He is a web designer by profession and admitted sending the messages," said a police officer.

Raising the issue in parliament, Bandyopadhyay had urged union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to take necessary steps.

The man had allegedly used abusive language and threatened to "kill Bandyopadhyay in Delhi and dispose of his body in Kolkata".

Expressing anguish and alarm over the issue, Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said the MP was getting the threats for being vocal in parliament.

"What kind of vendetta is this? Sudip is getting death threats for being vocal in parliament. Every party has the right to speak on any issue. Voices cannot be muzzled in a democracy," Banerjee had said on Tuesday.

Without taking names, Banerjee had hit out at the BJP-led central government. "If they do not want the opposition to speak, let them impose Emergency."