Relief for 'The Bengal Files' as Calcutta HC dismisses plea
text_fields
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the release of Vivek Agnihotri’s film The Bengal Files, after finding that the petitioner had failed to substantiate his allegations with credible evidence and supporting documents.
The plea was filed by Santanu Mukherjee, grandson of freedom fighter Gopal Mukherjee, popularly known as Gopal Patha, whose character appears in the movie. Mukherjee alleged that his grandfather had been wrongly depicted on screen and questioned the authenticity of the information used in the portrayal. He also stated that although he had filed a Right to Information (RTI) application seeking details about the sources of information on his grandfather, no response had been provided.
Mukherjee further raised an objection to Agnihotri’s membership of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), arguing that this too undermined the credibility of the film’s approval.
The case was heard by Justice Amrita Sinha of the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge Bench. During the proceedings, Justice Sinha noted that the issues raised did not fall within her court’s jurisdiction and advised the petitioner to approach the appropriate forum. She also observed that since Mukherjee had failed to produce the information he had sought under the RTI Act, his petition could not be entertained and therefore stood dismissed.
Last month, Mukherjee lodged an FIR against the film at a Kolkata police station, alleging that it had wrongfully described his grandfather as a butcher. “Besides being a part of the freedom-fighters’ group, Anushilon Samity, my grandfather owned two goat-meat shops. But that does not make him a butcher himself. He was a wrestler who took up arms to protect people from the communal violence unleashed by the Muslim League in Kolkata in 1946,” he said at the time.
The Bengal Files is widely regarded as the third instalment in Agnihotri’s ‘Files’ trilogy, following The Tashkent Files (2019) and the much-debated The Kashmir Files (2022). The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has previously been accused of imposing gag orders on films on allegedly “flimsy” grounds.
With IANS inputs
