The Bengal Jail Department continued to twist and trample law for the high and mighty of the ruling Trinamool Congress currently lodged behind the bars in connection with the Saradha chit fund case according almost star status to the ruling party Ministers, MPs and other senior leaders. In the latest such instance, Alipore Central Jail authorities on Sunday made special arrangements for State Transport Minister Madan Mitra who was on Sunday released from the State-run SSKM Hospital where a medical board of senior doctors certified him as fit.
Moments after the Minister was ferried in from the SSKM Hospital in a car instead of a standard prison van, the jail doctors for unknown reasons got him admitted to the jail hospital inside sources said adding a special 8-inch thick velvet mattress, woollen blankets and soft pillows were arranged for him. "It is mysterious why the jail doctors thought it necessary to shift him to the jail hospital hours after the senior doctors of the best State-run hospital diagnosed him as fit following a host of lab tests conducted on him" said CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrabarty.
The Minister was promptly shifted to the bed number 5 of Ward number 4 of the jail hospital from where other under trial patients were promptly shifted out to other wards. “A green curtain was used to make a make-shift cabin around his bed” said an insider adding Mitra was currently parked besides a fellow Trinamool leader and a former DGP Rajat Majumdar who was also arrested for his Saradha links and managed to avail of the hospital facilities. Upon the Minister’s orders the jail authorities were giving fresh coats of paints in Ward number 6 of the jail hospital where he would be kept later on.
While the there was no comment from either the Jail Minister or Superintendent inside sources said the authorities also violated rules by allowing the Minister’s relatives to meet him on Sunday. The under-trial prisoners are allowed to meet their relatives only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Jail wardens were immediately sent to fetch evening newspapers as there was no such provisions in the jail” sources said adding homemade food was allowed for him “though he would only take puffed rice.”
Earlier, the Minister was shifted to SSKM Hospital moments after being brought to the jail a few days ago when he was given a jail remand by a designated city court.
Curiously, Majumdar and Srinjoy Bose the Trinamool MP currently in jail custody were also undergoing “treatment” in hospitals. As per criminal laws, the prison manuals did not make differences between VVIP and general under-trial prisoners, Jail sources said adding Mitra and others were only eligible for a floor blanket and a mattress.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Abdul Mannan who for the first time moved the Supreme Court seeking a CBI investigation in the Saradha case also once again said he would move the apex court “drawing its attention towards how the doctors are becoming a party to the Government’s law-breaking methods by allowing leaders like Madan Mitra comfort of hospitals on flimsy grounds. The doctors and other staff will have to answer for their conduct. A common man like me would like know from the honourable Court as to whether this amounts to contempt of court.”
Mitra who was earlier admitted to the SSKM Hospital with reported cardiac conditions was promptly shifted to the VVIP Woodburn Ward where there was no such arrangement for cardiac ailments. In the Woodburn Ward the Minister was allegedly extended all kinds of facilities including a hooter-fixed car belonging to the Transport Department. The vehicle was parked mysteriously by the ward for the whole week of his stay raising doubts as to whom it ferried to and from the hospital during late nights.
In a related development, another Trinamool general secretary and its top student leader Shankudeb Panda was likely to appear before the ED for his alleged dealings with the Saradha. The ED and the CBI was planning to summon another woman legislator of the Trinamool Congress sources said.