Kolkata: Eminent Bengali poet Mandakranta Sen has filed a First Information Report (FIR) after she was allegedly threatened with gangrape for expressing solidarity with fellow poet Srijato Bandopadhyay. Police in West Bengal registered a case against unknown persons for the threat. Srijato was embroiled in a controversy after writing a poem that allegedly hurt Hindu sentiments. Sen wrote on Facebook alongside the obscene threat message by one Raja Das. “I have been threatened with gangrape”. Immediately after Sen uploaded the message on her Facebook wall, there was a huge protest by intellectuals and her fans. Mandakranta Sen went to the Kolkata Police Headquarters at Lalbazar in the evening and lodged an FIR with the cybercrime section of the police. “The only way to fight fundamentalism is to write more and hold more rallies. I am not worried about myself”, the poet told reporters. The post not only stood by Srijato after a controversy broke out over the latter’s poem on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mr. Yogi Adityanath, but also participated in a rally to protest against the attack on him. A Police complaint was filed against Srijato for allegedly hurting “Hindu sentiments and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mr. Yogi Adityanath” in a Facebook post by a Hindutva group. On March 19 Srijato had posted a 12-line poem on his Facebook page, on the day Mr. Adityanath was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Srijato expressed his disgust on Wednesday and condemned the rape threat against Sen. A senior Police officer from Kolkata Police said, ‘’They were checking the authenticity of the profile from which the threat was made to Sen and our officers are checking whether the profile from which the threat was made to Sen is real or a fake one after which we will proceed with investigation to nab him”. ]]>
