‘Mamata trampling Constitution in Bengal’

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the "barbaric attempt to prevent" Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials from carrying out an investigation into the Rs 3,000 crore coal scam.

Addressing a press conference here, Prasad, a former Union law minister, cited the submission by the solicitor general of India before the Supreme Court that the ED was probing alleged involvement of political consultancy firm I-PAC in the scam.

“Smuggling of coal is rampant in West Bengal, and the money so realised is channelled through hawala. The coal scam is worth Rs 3,000 crore. Such a matter deserves a serious probe. But Mamata Banerjee tried to throttle that," the BJP leader claimed.

The ED has alleged interference and obstruction by the West Bengal Government, including by Banerjee, in its probe and search operation at the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) office and the premises of its director, Pratik Jain, in Kolkata on January 8 in connection with an alleged coal-pilferage scam.

"Never before has the country seen such a spectacle. An elected chief minister stormed into the premises where raids were on by the ED and came out after snatching a folder containing papers,” Prasad said.

He claimed that the Kolkata police commissioner and the West Bengal DGP should be sacked for "acting upon the instructions of the chief minister instead of carrying out their duties as per law".

"It is also strange that Banerjee got so worked up even though the raids were not conducted at her residence or office or at the premises of any of her party colleagues," Prasad said.

Banerjee told the Supreme Court on Thursday that she went to the I-PAC premises on January 8 after receiving information that certain unauthorised persons had entered into the office of Pratik Jain, who had been entrusted with TMC's election work.

Training his guns at the Opposition INDIA bloc of which Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is a part, Prasad said, “I must also underscore the hypocrisy of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his associates like Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) and M K Stalin (DMK). Gandhi loves to go about showing a red-coloured copy of the Constitution. Yet, he is silent on the happenings in Bengal where the Constitution is being trampled upon in a barbaric fashion." Expressing delight over the BJP-led coalition's victory in the Maharashtra Civic body polls, he said the success comes close on the heels of the NDA's stupendous victory in the Bihar assembly elections. "We are confident that we will beat the TMC in the West Bengal assembly polls due in a few months," he said. The BJP leader also claimed to have witnessed "first-hand intimidation of voters in West Bengal by TMC cadres during his numerous visits to the State" as the head of several parliamentary delegations.

“You can see that even leaders of Congress have been critical of Mamata Banerjee's high-handed ways”, he said.