A first Information Report has been lodged against 11 BJP MLAs on Thursday at Hare Street police station (PS) on charges of allegedly disrespecting the national anthem within the Assembly campus. The 11 MLAs are Sudeep Mukhopadhyay, Malati Rava Roy, Chandana Bauri, Niladri Dana, Mihir Goswami, Manojkumar Oraon, Suman Kanjilal, Deepak Burman, Heeran, Manoj Tigga and Shankar Ghosh.

On the basis of a complaint against the 12 BJP MLAs, including Suvendu Adhikary, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) to the secretary of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Wednesday the FIR was lodged with police today. Mr Adhikary has been excluded from the FIR list because it requires permission of the Calcutta High Court before taking such step against the LoP.

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But Kolkata Police would explore legal options to include Mr Adhikary in the list of FIR lodged with police station that has already registered a case against the 11 others under Prevention of Insults National Honour Act, it is learnt. The parliamentary affairs committee of the ruling Trinamul Congress on Wednesday filed a complaint with the secretary of the Assembly bringing charge of ‘insulting’ the national anthem against 12 rival MLAs.

Later in the day, the secretary reportedly forwarded the complaint with the concerned PS. Firhad Hakim, state urban development and municipal affairs minister, said, “Insulting the national anthem is a criminal act. We hope, law will take its own course. We also condemn those who have disrespected the anthem.” The BJP has decided to move the HC challenging the move against their party MLAs.

Trinamul Congress MLAs, except the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, wearing black dresses, staged demonstration inside the Assembly premises on Wednesday in protest against the Narendra Modi government’s reluctance to release central funds under MGNREGA and Awas Yojana schemes in Bengal.

But the situation turned tense when BJP MLAs, led by Mr Adhikary returned to the Assembly from the Amit Shah rally at Esplanade and started yelling against the ruling Trinamul Congress’ demonstration programme. BJP leaders sat on the staircase at the state Assembly and also started demonstrating. The ruling party MLAs, while singing the national anthem at the end of their dharna-cum-protest alleged that the BJP members have insulted the anthem.