In an incident quite embarrassing for the Opposition BJP ahead of the general elections the Bengal Police has arrested a local BJP leader and ceased 41 kgs of marijuana from his house at Sankrail in Howrah district.
While the BJP saw a Trinamool Congress hand in the arrest of Nemai Das a Mandal (zonal) president and husband of a local BJP panchayat member the accused himself said that he had been a “victim of a conspiracy hatched by my own party men.” Three others also have been arrested with Das.
The TMC however went ahead with publishing pictures of Das with senior leaders like Suvendu Adhikari and State BJP president Sukanto Majumdar asking the police to find out whether the saffron party’s senior leaders were connected to the illegal ganja trade or not. “We have photographs of Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanto Majumdar with this man … so why the police will not investigate their role in such cases,” RMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh asked.
BJP State leader Samik Bhattacharya however wondered why only opposition workers were getting involved in “ganja cases”. He said, “the number of BJP men who are in jail on charges of ganja trafficking will now raise questions on whether Bengal is the largest producer of ganja in the country and if so what the police are doing … and how so much ganja is coming to Bengal.”
Both the BJP and the Left leaders have often accused the TMC for threatening the opposition workers with false cases of marijuana trafficking should they not leave their parties and join the ruling outfit.