The Trinamool Congress has dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the removal of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta alleging the top Central Government law officer in charge of sensitive cases, including the ones related to Sharada and Narada scams, met West Bengal Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari who figures in the list of suspect currently being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The letter signed by TMC MPs Derek O’Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Mahua Moitra, claimed that Mehta held a meeting with Adhikari, who was an accused in the 2016 Narada sting case and was being investigated by the CBI and therefore he should be removed from his post on the principles of “conflict of interest.”
Both Mehta and Adhikari, however, denied the meeting having taken place, while the TMC MPs said the Solicitor General’s removal from his post was the need of the hour to instill confidence among the people at large.
The CBI is the client of Mehta, who had been representing the Central agency in the Supreme Court and the High Court, the letter said. The development comes in the wake of reports that Adhikari had visited the Solicitor General at his official residence in Delhi.
Very recently three former ministerial colleagues of Adhikari from the earlier TMC Government had been briefly jailed in the Narada case which was fought by the Solicitor General in Calcutta High Court.
The letter alleged that the mastermind of the multi-crore chit Sharada chit fund scam, Sudipta Sen, had written to the authorities leveling “grave allegations” against Adhikari.
“Such a meeting between an accused in grave offences with the SG, who is advising such agencies by whom the said accused is being investigated, is in direct conflict of interest with the statutory duties of the SG of India,” the letter said alleging the meeting was organised to influence the outcome of the matters where Adhikari was an accused.
“In order to avoid any doubt in the mind of the public at large, as to the integrity and neutrality of the office of the SG, we approach you to initiate necessary steps for removal of Mehta from the post of the SG of India,” the MPs wrote.
Denying the meeting a statement from the Solicitor General said, “Adhikari did come to my residence cum office yesterday at around 3pm, unannounced… I was already in a pre-scheduled meeting …
When … my PPS informed me about his arrival, I requested my PPS to convey Adhikari my inability to meet him and apologise … Adhikari thanked my PPS and left without insisting to meet me. The question of my meeting with Adhikari therefore did not arise.”
In Kolkata, Adhikari too said he could not meet the Solicitor General as he would not meet him. When asked as to whether he went to meet him he said, “I did not meet Solicitor General Mehta. Herefused to meet me yesterday.”
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, however, demanded the scanning of the CCTV footages to ensure the truth. “It is a matter of public trust,” he said, adding “the personfrom Kolkata had gone to the Solicitor General’s government residence with his security men and things must have been noted documented …whether there was a meeting or not could be determined from the CCTV footages too”.