A letter from lok Sabha secretariat seems to have unnerved the senior babus at Bengal State secretariat Nabanna. The letter has asked the Kolkata Police to submit a report on proceedings against Union Minister Babul Supriyo for his alleged impolite remarks against Trinamool Congress MlA and spokesperson Mahua Maitra.
The communiqué coming from the lok Sabha Privilege and Ethics Committee has asked the State Director General of Police to send a report on the procedures followed and asked the Asansol BJP MP to report at a city police station.
The senior officials in the State administration feel any procedural lapse that might have occurred while issuing summons to Union Minister may land the police top brass in problem. Though a senior bureaucrat iterated, "the Police have powers to summon anyone for questioning" and "hope the Police Commissioner's report will adequately explain the conduct of the police and satisfy the Privilege Committee," he sounded tentative on whether such an argument would be accepted by the lok Sabha Committee.
Already the Bengal BJP leadership has expressed its displeasure with Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar an alleged blue-eyed boy of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is at loggerheads with the Narendra Modi Government.
The Bengal opposition parties including the BJP have also questioned the way Sharada chit fund scam was investigated in 2013-14 by the Bidhannagar Police with Kumar as its then Commissioner.
“This is one occasion to teach this man lessons on how to work impartially,” a State BJP leader said adding the bureaucrats should know how the futility of blindly following what Mamata Banerjee says because “she will go one day but these officials will have to remain.”
The BJP-Trinamool war had reached a new height on January 10 when the Kolkata Police summoned Babul Supriyo for questioning after a complaint was lodged by Mahua Maitra who alleged that the Minister had insulted her during a television debate on January 4.
Maitra a TMC MlA had in a written complaint lodged at Alipore Police Station alleged that in the national debate Supriyo had outraged her modesty by wondering whether she was inebriated.
Maitra said "during the show, the Minister had said 'Mahua, are you on Mahua (intoxicating drink)IJ' indicating that I was in an inebriated state." She claimed that the statement was "very insulting and filed the complaint on January 4 at Alipore Police Station."
Subsequently a case was registered under Section 509 (outraging the modesty of a woman by word, sound or gesture).
The Kolkata Police apparently acting on the behest of its top brass summoned the Minister without going into the details of the case, sources alleged even as the BJP raised questions on the police administration’s impartiality.
The Mahua-Babul tiff tended to look like a culmination of an ongoing Mamata Banerjee-Narendra Modi war on demonetisation as also the CBI's strong steps taken against the politicians which saw Trinamool MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay and Tapas Paul in jail for their alleged involvement in Rose Valley chit fund case.