Kolkata: Anubrata Mondal, the Trinamool Congress’ strongman in Birbhum district in West Bengal, is one of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s long-time favourites. Keshto, as she calls him fondly, has been the chief of the Birbhum wing of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the past two decades. He ensures victory in every election. And he raises funds. He has just spent two years in Tihar jail for links with cattle smuggling.
Mondal’s foul comments are legendary and aimed at party colleagues and opponents—without fear or favour. He once publicly ordered TMC workers to bomb the police and to set fire to the homes of political foes. No action was ever taken against him. But in the leaked audio clip of a phone conversation that went viral last week, his language crossed all limits.
Mondal is heard warning a police inspector, Liton Halder, with physical harm and threatening his wife and mother with rape. He was enraged since Halder had reported to his seniors that Mondal’s political rally had “only 12,000 people”. Every other word in the audio clip is a four-letter expletive and has had to be bleeped out.
A few lower-rung Trinamool representatives mumbled their condemnation of Mondal in television debates. Mamata went silent.
Instead, the legal cell of Birbhum police sent a letter to the lead anchor of a top Bengali TV news channel, ABP Ananda. It threatened action “without any further notice” if the channel continued to air the controversial audio clip as it “tarnished the image of the police”. As if Mondal had not damaged the image of the police already with the abuse he had hurled at the inspector in charge of Bolpur police station, and then ignored police summons for days. Seemingly with impunity.
Police have reportedly confiscated two cell phones of Inspector Halder, the recipient of the abusive call. Meanwhile, they have let the alleged abusive caller, Mondal, keep his own.
Though policemen across the state are seething with rage at the treatment meted out to their colleague by a Trinamool leader, there is little they can do.
As West Bengal gears up for the 2026 Assembly elections, Opposition parties and general people are pointing fingers at the police in the state, which, they allege, is now an extended arm of the Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Both the West Bengal Police and the Kolkata Police are being used to cover up the misdeeds of the Mamata Banerjee government, and to give her party a political advantage by suppressing dissent, harassing opponents and to influence electoral outcomes,” alleges former IPS officer and trenchant Mamata critic, Nazrul Islam.
“If Mamata is in power, it is all because of the politicisation and misuse of police and administration,” he adds.
These allegations have persisted since TMC came to power in 2011, with critics, including Opposition parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, as well as civil society, pointing to a pattern of police bias towards Bengal’s ruling party.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told The Sunday Guardian: “The only job of the police is to ensure the majority of TMC government during elections forcefully—be it the election to a cooperative bank, a panchayat, or Assembly or General election, it is the police that does most of the dirty work for its political masters. In the smaller elections in the villages, it is the police that takes the lead in negotiating with prospective opponents. They are at the forefront of intimidating prospective opponents with false cases or even to buy them off. On the day of the elections, the police sit idle and give a free run to the ruling party’s goons. I have recordings in which the local inspector-in-charge can be heard offering money to the Trinamool’s political opponents to step down.”
BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari says that the TMC government is misusing the police to deny equal democratic rights to the Opposition parties. “Under the control of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, police do not believe in providing a level-playing field for every candidate. It has become a ruling party cadre in the state,” he said.
The West Bengal Police have been accused of using excessive force or strategic inaction to suppress protests that challenge the TMC government.
The West Bengal Police have faced criticism for their handling of communal violence, particularly in cases where TMC leaders are allegedly involved. A significant example is the violence against Hindus in Murshidabad district in April 2025, following protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act by Muslims who comprise almost 70% of the population in the district.
Even as the police stood idle, houses and shops belonging to Hindus were targeted for loot and arson. More than 400 Hindu families had to flee due to the targeted attacks. The BJP accused the police of inaction despite prior intelligence.
A Calcutta High Court fact-finding committee submitted a report naming a local TMC councillor of directing the violence even as the police stood idle. The report said that not only did the police fail to assist Hindu victims, it forcibly sent back hundreds of families who had lost all their possessions when their houses were burnt to the ground.
“The West Bengal Police either uses excessive force or chooses strategic inaction to suppress protests that challenge the TMC government. Following the horrific rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at the government-run R.G. Kar Medical College, the police stood by and watched as a mob organised by a local Trinamool leader vandalised the hospital and tried to destroy evidence. Its senior personnel actively connived with the Trinamool to destroy evidence.”
“At the same time, in Sandeshkhali, the police intimidated the locals and even arrested media persons who were covering the protests following reports that Trinamool leaders preyed on women and grabbed land and fish ponds with impunity,” says Tarunjyoti Tiwari, a lawyer and BJP youth leader.
The West Bengal Police have been accused of colluding with criminal elements linked to the TMC, particularly in illegal activities like coal and sand smuggling. Both Left parties and TMC leaders themselves have accused the police of aiding corrupt TMC leaders in exchange for money. This alleged collusion is seen as a mechanism to maintain TMC’s dominance in rural areas, where local leaders often control resources like sand and coal mines. The police’s inaction or complicity ensures that these leaders remain loyal to TMC, providing financial and electoral support while facing minimal legal consequences.
“From the beginning of Mamata Banerjee’s rule, the police has played a prominent role in covering up the misdeeds of the ruling party. The police has systematically helped Mamata personally and her party. The police tamper with evidence to help the ruling party. From the Saradha scam where crores of people lost their life’s savings to the RG Kar tragedy, the police have tampered with evidence with impunity,” says Jawhar Sircar, a retired IAS officer and former Rajya Sabha MP who resigned in the aftermath of the protests against the Mamata Banerjee government after the R.G. Kar tragedy.
CPM leader and lawyer Sabyasachi Chatterjee told The Sunday Guardian: “Mamata Banerjee has only one weapon, the police and administration, with which she holds on to power. It is the police which have to show some spine in front of the Trinamool’s goons. Anubrata’s abuse of Inspector Liton Halder should serve as a wakeup call for the police force.”When contacted for comment, TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said: “The party has made its disapproval clear. It has forced Anubrata to convey his apology. The matter rests there.”