A woman BJP worker suffered head injuries when “outsiders” pelted stones at a huge party rally taken out in Kolkata. The party was demanding resignation and immediate arrest of the tainted Trinamool Congress leaders shown in the Narada video tapes accepting bribe from a journalist faking as a prospective investor. The tapes had went on air in March last year just ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections in Bengal.
“We had taken out a peaceful rally and broke one of the two barricades but some outsider threw brickbats at the rallyists injuring our workers,” State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said refusing to identify any political party.
Earlier the police had a hard time controlling the large posse of BJP workers who jammed the Dharmtalla area.
Meanwhile, a mellowed Bengal Chief Minister on Wednesday “welcomed” the Apex Court order saying she was “satisfied” with the order and that her Government would cooperate with the investigators. She was left apparently with a bitter taste in the mouth after her Government lost its appeal in Supreme Court — where it had demanded quashing of the Calcutta High Court order directing CBI investigation into the Narada sting case — .
A galaxy of top Trinamool leaders including Ministers like Subroto Mukherjee, Suvendu Adhikary, Firhad Hakim, Sovan Chatterjee and MPs Saugato Roy, Sultan Ahmed, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Aparupa Poddar, former student leader Sankudeb Panda, national football player-turned-MP Prasun Mukherjee, former Minister Madan Mitra and senior IPS officer SMH Mirza were seen accepting bribe in the Narada tapes.
Incidentally, a number of leaders shown in “action” in the Narada tapes are also named in the Sharada and other chit fund scams. Banerjee had been defending tooth-and-nail the Narada accused claiming her leaders had been victimised and that the Narada project was part of a political plan to unseat her from power in Bengal.
In a related development Mathew Samuels, the Narada CEO, had reportedly filed police complaints with police stations in Dwarka in Delhi and Kochi apprehending life threat. He said two persons whom “I do not know” were following him and his family. “We are being watched. Two persons whom I do not know are following me,” he said adding “this is a serious matter and I apprehend something.” The journalist has also spoken to the DGP of Kerala, he said.