West Bengal: Partha Chatterjee's offence doesn't make us all thieves, says KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim

Kolkata: Two days after the division bench of Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to be a part of PIL regarding the assets and property details of 19 heavyweight Trinamool Congress leaders including present seven ministers, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mayor Firhad Hakim on Wednesday said that the PIL stands for ‘Political Interest Litigation'.

“I am ashamed of what Partha Chatterjee has done but that doesn’t mean everyone in TMC are thieves. The PIL is political interest litigation to malign us. In years, income and property of a person can increase. I do business for years and run my family. I have an income tax return and if income tax officials want they can scrutinize my details,” said Hakim.

State education minister Bratya Basu said that not just TMC, names of Congress and Left Front leaders are also mentioned in the PIL.

“Names of state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, CPI (M) leader Kanti Ganguly, Ashok Bhattacharya, and others are also mentioned in the PIL. This is nothing but the political vendetta of the BJP to malign TMC. After they have lost the polls they want to create unnecessary chaos,” mentioned Basu.

Slamming the Trinamool Congress, state Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that if CBI, ED, and CID summons him he won’t hide in hospital.

“Congress has not been in power for over 45 years in the state. It is good to hear that I have minted money but the truth is known to everyone,” said Chowdhury.

Senior CPI (M) leader Kanti Ganguly claimed that all his ‘book of accounts’ are transparent.

It may be noted that based on the affidavits filed by these leaders with the Election Commission of India (ECI) while filing their nominations for various elections, in 2017 one Biplab Chowdhury had filed a PIL about the growth of assets of these TMC leaders.

Published on: Wednesday, August 10, 2022, 08:16 PM IST