TMC MLA assaults restaurant owner for 'abusing' Abhishek Banerjee

Actor-turned-Trinamool Congress MLA Soham Chakraborty created a controversy by assaulting a restaurant owner who allegedly abused party MP Abhishek Banerjee during the shooting of a film there.

Both Chakraborty and restaurant owner Anisul Alam lodged complaints with the police against each other, an officer said on Saturday.

The MLA later said he wanted to apologise to Alam as he should have controlled his anger.

The problem between the two sides began over parking the cars of Chakraborty and his men in front of the eatery in New Town near Kolkata.

According to CCTV footage of the restaurant, which went viral later on, Chakraborty was seen assaulting Alam.

When contacted, the restaurant owner claimed that he had allowed shooting in a portion of his restaurant "free of cost" on late Saturday evening.

"The entire parking space was occupied by the cars of Mr Chakraborty and his men. My staff told his men to remove their cars as other customers were not able to park their vehicles," Alam said.

The restaurant owner added that the actor's men told him that he's an MLA and a very close friend of TMC's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

"I said that I don't care even if he is Narendra Modi's friend or Abhishek's. It was then when suddenly Mr Chakraborty came and punched me on my face and kicked me in my abdomen," Alam alleged.

Chakraborty admitted to slapping the restaurant owner.

"The owner was abusing my staff and Abhishek Banerjee. He also abused me. I lost my cool and slapped him... I should have kept my cool and could have controlled my anger. I would like to apologise to the owner," the actor said.

A senior officer of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said that the restaurant owner on Saturday lodged a complaint against the MLA and his security guards.

"We have received complaints both from the MLA and the restaurant owner against each other. We have started cases and investigations are on," the officer said.