Krishnanagar: A court in West Bengal has issued an arrest warrant against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra for allegedly failing to honour summons in a hate speech case.
This relates to comments allegedly made by her at a news conference in the Nadia district in Aug 2025, while speaking about infiltration along the India-Bangladesh border, as reported by The Times of India.
On Wednesday, the 3rd Judicial Magistrate at Krishnanagar court directed that the execution report of the warrant be submitted on August 28. The court said Moitra had failed to comply with repeated summonses requiring her appearance.
“The series of disobedience of the order of this court …. goes to show the lackadaisical approach of the accused to comply with the court order and accordingly this court is left with no other option but to issue a warrant of arrest against her,” the magistrate said, as quoted by PTI.
Moitra’s lawyer had said she would not appear before it, the Court noted, which the magistrate described as showing that she had “no respect for the court of law”. Her lawyer had cited apprehensions that the MP could be heckled outside the court premises.
After the press conference, a case was registered against Moitra under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to insulting the modesty of a woman, promoting enmity between groups, outraging religious feelings, criminal intimidation and hate speech.
The MP from Krishnanagar had, however, maintained that her remarks were figurative and based on a Bengali idiom, and denied any intention to encourage violence.
On August 14, Moitra had appeared before the Nadia Police in connection with the investigation. She had moved the Supreme Court, praying to be allowed to appear before the police virtually as she feared that eggs would be thrown at her. The Supreme Court had dismissed her please, while directing the police to prevent any such mob attack.
The Calcutta high court had earlier granted Moitra interim protection from coercive police action until October 5, subject to her cooperating with the probe.
