Kolkata: The West Bengal government was on Tuesday ordered by the Calcutta High Court to pay within one month Rs. 50,000 as compensation to professor Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was arrested in 2012 for posting cartoons of CM Mamata Banerjee.

Asking the state government to implement the recommendations of the State Human Rights Commission, Justice Dipankar Dutta directed the state to pay Rs. 50,000 each to Mr Mahapatra and Subrata Sengupta, who was the president of the housing society they live in, apart from another Rs 50,000 towards their expenditure on litigation.

The compensation would have to be paid within one month, the court directed, adding that an investigation would held into the role of two police officials of the police station concerned, which had arrested Mr Mahapatra.

Mr Mahapatra had posted on Internet a cartoon of Ms Banerjee and Trinamul leader Mukul Roy after the Rail budget in 2012.

A complaint had been lodged against Mr Mahapatra and Mr Sengupta, in whose name the IP address of the computer was registered, and both were arrested. They were later granted bail by a city court.
“It is a victory of human rights,” Mr Mahapatra said after the court order on Tuesday.