Popular Actor in the West Bengal Movie Industry, Badsha Maitra, was spotted at Santragachi where Muslim mobs were on a rampage after the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Santragachi is a locality in Howrah City of Howrah district that has its own railway station.
Someone captured pictures of him at the spot and those pictures bean to be circulated with the allegation that he was leading the violence. He can be seen in the pictures wearing a Muslim skull cap.
In one picture that was being circulated on social media, smoke can be seen in the background. The actor is on the phone seen talking to someone.
Now, the actor has issued a clarification on social media. He said that he was attending a conference organized by DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) in the area. DYFI is an independent organisation but quite a few communist leaders have been associated with DYFI. While he was traveling there, Badsha says he got stuck in the road and was talking to the organizers on the phone. He said that it was reflective of the state of the politics in the country that the images were being used to spread rumours on social media.
However, as one person pointed out in a comment in his post, it does not appear necessary to attend a DYFI conference wearing a skull cap. Badsha Maitra has long been associated with the Left. Ahead of the Assembly elections in the state in 2011, he had appealed to people to vote the Left government to power for the eighth time.