A section of the Bengal Pradesh Congress leadership has expressed displeasure at the senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal’s decision to argue the case of jailed Bengal Minister Madan Mitra.
Sibal arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday and was likely to appear in the Calcutta High Court for Mitra a prime accused in the Saradha chit fund scam. The Bengal Minister was arrested last year by the CBI. Earlier, repeated bail petitions filed by him had been rejected.
Opposing his bail plea the CBI counsel argued that the he being a powerful man may influence the case. In order to buttress its argument the CBI showed how Mitra had neither resigned his ministerial post nor had he been removed by the Government. The Agency also showed how instead of being in jail Mitra had been put up in the VVIP Woodburn Ward of the SSKM Hospital, a State-run super-specialty unit, despite the fact that medical investigations on his health condition have revealed no significant condition.
While Sibal would not dwell much on his decision to stand for Mitra only saying he was a regular visitor to Kolkata for fighting cases, his Bengal party colleagues like PCC president Adhir Chowdhury tended to look a tad sore when he said, “we cannot say much about Mr Sibal’s professional decisions.”
He added “though as a professional Mr Sibal is free to vouch for Madan Mitra’s honesty as a party we will definitely face some embarrassment because he is also a senior leader of the Congress Party. People may not take it kindly.”
Privately the Congress leaders disapproved of Sibal’s decision to contest Mitra’s case as “in certain cases a political person you are expected to practice some kind of moral standard. In such cases one cannot segregate one’s political identity from professional identity.”
last year the SC after hearing a petition filed by Pradesh Congress leader Abdul Mannan had ordered CBI investigation into the multi-crore case overruling the Trinamool Congress-run State Government’s plea that the State was capable of investigating the scam. CPI(M) leader and former Kolkata Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya said, “as a professional I cannot comment on Sibal’s decision. He must have done what he has thought fit to do.”