Two days after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee branded him a Maoist for interrupting her speech during a public rally to ask questions, a villager from Belpahari in West Midnapore district was remanded on Saturday to judicial custody for 14 days.

Shailaditya Choudhury, incidentally a known Trinamool Congress worker, was charged under sections 447, 332, 353 and 506 of the IPC dealing with "criminal tresspass", "voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty" and "criminal intimidation". Of the four, two are non-bailable sections.

According to fellow villagers, before leaving for the meeting that day, Choudhury had told them he wanted to make sure he was able to get across his grievances to the CM. He wanted Mamata to know he never got the Rs 2 a kg rice he was entitled to as well as wanted to ask her for a job as a home guard. He also meant to tell her about the steep fertiliser prices making farming difficult.

As Choudhury repeatedly got up to interrupt CM while she addressed villagers in this Maoist belt  getting once onto the bamboo barrier to make himself heard  Mamata got angry and shouted back: "I have information Maoists have sent agents to create disturbance at this meeting. Catch him. Do not let him create trouble."

Choudhury was immediately taken out of the meeting ground by the police but released. On Thursday, however, he was again summoned to the Belpahari police station where his brother Alok is posted as a home guard. On Saturday morning, he was put under arrest.

The incident comes two months after Mamata angrily walked out of a CNN-IBN live talk show calling some students who had asked uncomfortable questions "Maoists".

Belpahari Inspector Nirmal Majhi said Choudhury had tried to "enter the high-security zone", used "threatening language" and "pushed" Majhi when resisted.

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