Investigation agencies now harassing locals: CM Mamata
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed the culprits behind the violence and gherao of judicial officers in Malda district’s Mothabari have escaped, and investigators were harassing the innocent locals in the name of the NIA, the agency assigned to probe the case.
Addressing an election rally at Manikchak in Malda, she urged the gathering not to approach judicial officers scrutinising ‘under adjudication’ cases post-SIR. Instead, submit applications before tribunals for the re-inclusion of names of those erroneously removed from the voters’ list, the TMC supremo said. Apparently referring to the ISF and the AIMIM, Banerjee said, “Two communal parties gheraoed the judges and escaped. Now, investigators are harassing innocent locals in the name of the NIA. They have picked up some 50 innocent people in the name of investigation.”
She let out a gasp of disbelief after an overwhelming number of hands were raised from those attending the public meeting in Manikchak when Banerjee asked for a show of hands of those whose names were deleted from the electoral rolls. “There is no need to hold political rallies and meetings of our party. My priority is to extend help to these people to apply before tribunals to include the names wrongly deleted from the electoral rolls,” the TMC supremo instructed the party’s local leaders present on the stage.
Blaming Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the electoral roll purge, Banerjee addressed the BJP leader as “Motabhai” and alleged that he was driving a wedge through the officers’ fraternity in the state administration in the name of pre-election transfers.
Seven judicial officers were held hostage inside the local BDO office in the Mothabari area of Malda district, and an eighth was confined inside a vehicle for about nine hours on Wednesday after a large crowd, protesting post-SIR deletion of names from voters’ lists, turned violent by blocking roads, vandalising vehicles and attacking police personnel.
