In the wake of a series of arrests of influential people in the Saradha scam and media reports suggesting that top leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress not only had a hand in the multi-crore scandal but some of them also helped route Saradha money to Bangladeshi terror group Jamaat-e-Islam, both the left Front on Friday staged Statewide agitations, parallel to the BJP, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Meanwhile, jailed Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh dropped yet another bombshell by implicating State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee for his “deep links” with the chit fund owners.
The left Front staged counter rallies against the one staged by the Trinamool Congress. The women wings of the left Front parties marched towards the CGO complex in Salt lake, where the CBI office is housed, as a counter measure of the Trinamool dharna but they were stopped by police. Demanding Banerjee’s resignation, senior CPI(M) leader Shyamal Chakrabarty said time has come when the Chief Minister should come clean in this scam and allow herself to be questioned by the CBI. “If she does not do so, we will demand her resignation and expose her real face,” he said.
Most police stations in Bengal witnessed tumultuous situation with the BJP staging a series of thana gherao programmes from Kolkata to Siliguri and Behrampore.
The agitation evoked more response in Siliguri where hundreds of saffron supporters gheraoed local police stations for more than two hours. The BJP men also gheraoed Bhawanipore police station in south Kolkata barely one km from Mamata Banerjee’s house. Their colleagues staged similar protests at Salt lake, Murshidabad, Howrah and elsewhere.
The Trinamool demonstration was led by State Health Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya forcing the intelligence agency to cancel the grilling of Trinamool MP Srinjoy Bose and party leader and Mamata’s close aide Samir Chakrabarty.
Accusing the Trinamool of playing the role of a conduit in getting Saradha chief to fund Jamaat movements in Bangladesh, BJP central observer for Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh had earlier said that his party would submit a memorandum to Governor KN Tripathi demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister. The party would also stage a Thana Gherao Andolan from Friday, he had said.
Meanwhile, the CBI on Friday made its fourth arrest by taking into custody Assamese singer Sadanda Gogoi for his alleged connection with the Saradha scam. He had been questioned by both the ED and the CBI for several times. The singer, who would be taken to various locations in Assam, reportedly failed to furnish necessary documents to the CBI, sources said.
Elsewhere, Kunal Ghosh on Friday told a city court that senior State Minister and Trinamool general secretary Partho Chatterjee should also be questioned in the case. Showing the judge a Durga Puja invitation card of a big south Kolkata club headed by Chatterjee, he said, “Most of the corporate partners in the club during the stated puja were chit fund owners who sponsor the festival.”
He went on to ask, “How can Chatterjee associate himself with chit fund bossesIJ If I can be grilled and put behind the bar why can’t heIJ Being a person in power, he can influence the probe more than I can.”