The Rabindra Sadan area in Central Kolkata turned into a battlefield on Monday as TMC supporters tried to break the police barricades and enter Nizam Palace where the arrested TMC leaders Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and former TMC minister Sovan Chatterjee have been kept after their arrest over alleged involvement in Narada scam.
Chanting anti-BJP slogans the TMC cadres also demonstrated in front of Nizam Palace, where the CBI office is housed, and the police had to intervene to maintain the COVID-19 protocol. According to CBI sources, charge-sheets for the arrested leaders will be produced in court today.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been agitating for over an hour in front of the CBI-DIG office on the 14th floor of Nizam Palace. On reaching the building earlier in the day, she had claimed that if her leaders are arrested, she should also be arrested. TMC MP and MLAs Kalyan Bandhopadhyay, Mala Roy, Shantanu Sen and Paresh Pal have also reached Nizam Palace to take stock of the situation.
“We might produce papers and chances are high due to covid protocol the arrested leaders may not be taken to Bankshall court in person,” said the CBI sources adding that the charge-sheet was made in Delhi and through ACB it had reached Kolkata.
Incidentally, the lawyers of the TMC said that they are moving court for immediate bail for the four leaders. West Bengal Assembly speaker Biman Bandhopadhyay said that the law and order in West Bengal will break if the Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar gives permission for arrests.
“I have informed the Calcutta High Court that the permission of the speaker was not sought or informed. How can the Governor give orders like this? The condition of the state will be worse if the Governor takes decisions like this,” claimed Biman.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the BJP is trying to enter West Bengal through a back door. “The BJP failed to form a government in West Bengal for which they are looking for alternative ways to enter Bengal. BJP leader Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari should also be arrested over their connection in ponzi scams,” he claimed.
Welcoming the move, CPI (M) leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said that other leaders from TMC and also defectors who are involved with the ponzi scams should be arrested immediately.
Rubbishing claims that BJP was 'running the CBI', West Bengal BJP spokesperson Shamik Ghosh said that the Bengal saffron camp doesn’t have the power to control CBI.
