Saugar Sengupta n
A day after Bengal Police arrested BJP leader Mukul Roy’s brother-in-law on graft charges, the ruling Trinamool Congress on Sunday mounted more pressure on the former Railway Minister by lodging a police complaint against him for breaking model code of conduct.
In a police complaint lodged at Jalpaiguri Kotwali Police Station, the TMC has charged Roy with trying to bribe the voters ahead of the Panchayat elections.
Roy during campaigns was telling the young voters that they would be gifted a smartphone each should the BJP win the Zilla Parishad elections in the district, the complaint said. The police was investigating the case, sources said.
The Sunday’s development came a day after Roy’s brother-in-law Srijan Roy was arrested for extracting money from the complainants by promising Indian Railway jobs. The BJP leader however said his relative was arrested “to stop me from campaigning in the Panchayat elections.” Curiously the police acted on Saturday though the complaint was lodged six years ago. A North 24 Parganas court sent Roy’s relative to a 12-day police remand on Saturday.
Reacting to the saffron leader’s alleged breaking of model code of conduct, Bengal Minister Partho Chatterjee said “the BJP wants nothing but power. In order to grab power they can stoop to any level. The alleged charges levelled against Mukul Roy, is a case in point.”
The matter was serious and should be probed, CPI(M) Assembly party leader Sujan Chakrabarty said.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha on Sunday brought serious charges against some Trinamool Congress Minister alleging they had issue death threats to the State Election Commissioner making him surrender to their wicked undemocratic designs to trample democracy in Bengal.
“I have information that some ministers approached the SEC and threatened him with murder. He was forced to take his decisions favouring the Trinamool Congress in the Panchayat elections,” Sinha said demanding a secret statement from him in the court.
“We want him to give a secret statement in the court about the death threat he received from the Trinamool Congress Ministers,” that eventually made the Commission take some undemocratic decisions. “In a State where the Election Commission is not safe no human being is safe,” Sinha maintained.
In a related development Panchayat poll violence continued unabated even as three persons died in clashes between the Trinamool Congress and the opposition parties. Two supporters of Congress and TMC each died in Malda while a Trinamool member died in Purulia when bombs were hurled at him, police said. All the deaths were poll related, sources said.