Karat files formal complaint against TMC's Derek O’Brien

New Delhi, April 24: Prakash Karat on Sunday filed a police complaint against Trimool Congress leader Derek O’Brien here for morphing the former CPI-M general secretary’s photograph that showed Home Minister Rajth Singh offering him a sweet.

“I have lodged a complaint with Delhi Police as morphing a photograph like the manner it was done by a political party is an offence under cyber laws. Therefore, I have requested police to register an FIR in this connection,” Karat told reporters after lodging a formal complaint with Mandir Marg police station in central Delhi.

Communist Party of India-Marxist sources said Karat has, in fact, never met Rajth on such a stage or a public function and, therefore, morphing such a picture smacked of political motives.

On Saturday, addressing a press conference in Kolkata, Trimool Congress’s floor leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’ Brien played two videos of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s speeches and four pictures, including one that showed Rajth Singh offering a sweet to Prakash Karat, former general secretary of the CPI-M.

Pointing to this particular picture, O’Brien even called it his “favourite”.

However, in no time it was revealed that the photograph was photoshopped and made in an attempt to prove close links between CPI-M and BJP leaders.

The Bharatiya Jata Party later came up with the “real picture” — that has Rajth Singh offering sweets to Prime Minister rendra Modi.

The Trimool subsequently admitted that the picture was photoshopped and removed it from its website.

“Two videos and six pictures were shown at our press conference. We removed one pic immediately when our research team learned it was photoshopped,” the Trimool said on its official Twitter account, which was retweeted by O’Brien. The Trimool MP subsequently in a video message on his Facebook admitted it was a mistake and sought to “end the chapter”. (IANS)