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Wakf Bill: Senior Advocate smashes glass bottle after heated exchange with former judge at JPC meet

He injured his finger and was later suspended for a day from the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

Bar & Bench

Senior Advocate and All India Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee was suspended for a day on Tuesday from the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill after smashing a glass bottle during a heated argument with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay.

According to NDTV, Banerjee injured his thumb and index finger, requiring first aid at the medical center inside the parliament complex.

The incident when two Odisha based organizations were making a presentation, the relevance of which was questioned by the opposition MPs.

Banerjee was reportedly speaking out of turn, intent on making his point while Gangopadhyay was speaking. However, the BJP MP was just as resolute in not giving him the floor, the report suggested.

"According to eyewitnesses to the incident, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee picked up a glass water bottle kept there and hit it on the table and hurt himself by accident," tweeted ANI.

Banerjee, a TMC MP from Serampore in Hooghly district, first won an Assembly election in 2001 from Asansol Uttar. Though he lost in 2006, he transitioned to parliament by 2009. After his recent victory in the Lok Sabha elections, he is now serving his fourth term as MP from Serampore (West Bengal).

He is also a Senior Advocate who practices before the Supreme Court of India and Calcutta High Court.

Justice Gangopadhyay is an MP from the Tamluk constiutency in West Bengal.

Justice Gangopadhyay had resigned as judge in March this year and joined the BJP before going to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Even as a judge, Justice Gangopadhyay had been a vocal critic of Mamata Banerjee led TMC government in the State.

The former judge had been in the thick of things in the recent past over his controversial orders and statements.

He had accused Justice Soumen Sen of Calcutta High Court "acting for a political party in the State".

The Supreme Court had to eventually take cognisance and and transfer all proceedings to itself in some cases before Justice Gangopadhyay.

Read 2014 interview of Kalyan Banerjee here.

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