The Bengal Opposition parties and the civil society launched a vitriolic attack against the Mamata Banerjee Government for “hatching plans” to eliminate Kunal Ghosh, the jailed Trinamool Congress MP and a key accused in the multi-crore Saradha ponzi fund case.
In a scathing attack on the power that be and the “vested interests whose names are repeatedly coming in the media for their involvement in the scam and who are trying to evade arrest”, Bengal BJP president Rahul Sinha on Friday said that there was a “game” going on to see that Kunal Ghosh went out of their way so that they could save themselves from going to jail.
Ghosh who attempted suicide in the small hours of Friday by consuming sleeping pills was later said to be out of danger.
Wondering as to why no precautionary measure was taken to protect him despite his open threat in a court that he would commit suicide if the other influential people involved in the scam were not arrested within 72 hours Sinha said that some Trinamool leaders “thought that he should be allowed to finish himself once he had declared his intentions. Had he managed to end his life these men would have felt relieved.”
The Trinamool leaders who were thinking that they would finally evade arrest “will never be able to do so because sooner than later they will be arrested and will land up in the same place where Kunal Ghosh is today” Sinha said.
Reacting sharply to the incident State Opposition leader and CPI(M) Politburo member Suryakanto Mishra said, “It is the responsibility of the Government and it will have to take the responsibility of what happened today.”
BJP’s observer for Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh demanding a CBI investigation into the incident said, “Many people had suspected of a political motive behind the arrest of Ghosh because he had started to expose senior Trinamool leaderships involvement in the Saradha scam.”
“Few days back he had threatened to commit suicide if certain leadership of TMC like Mukul Roy and Madan Mitra are not arrested … Since Kunal is the prime witness it was imperative for Bengal police to be more alert and should have monitored him 24x7” he added. “The approach of jail authorities raises further questions whether it was suicide attempt or political motive allowing him to commit suicideIJ Also it is important to know how the drugs slipped into his room”, he further said.
In a similar reaction Adhir Chowdhury PCC president said, “He managed to make a suicide attempt because the administration did not bother to remain vigilant even after his threat. The TMC would have been the happiest if anything had happened to him.”
Ghosh who reportedly told the police and the doctors that he had taken 58 pills was later reported to be in a stable condition and his heart beat and other parameters were normal, the medical board that was treating him said.