The multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund probe took an ugly turn on Tuesday when hundreds of Trinamool Congress (TMC) cadres attacked the BJP office in Kolkata after the CBI arrested the party’s parliamentary party leader Sudip Bandopadhyay, prompting a retaliatory attack by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bandopadhyay was arrested after a four-and-a-half-hour marathon grilling during which he “showed no signs of cooperation”. Soon after, the TMC workers led a “planned invasion” of the Bengal BJP headquarters.
Central forces had to be rushed in to secure senior saffron leaders — including Rahul Sinha, locket Chatterjee. Several BJP workers were injured and half-a-dozen cars smashed in the Trinamool attack that continued intermittently well into the evening.
As though things were pre-planned trouble-makers led by local MlA and Minister Shahsi Panja and a Councilor descended on the BJP office with brickbats. Things could have been uglier with the police continuing to look the other way, had there not been a timely phone call from the Union Home Ministry to State DGP Surajit Karpurakayastha, sources said.
Subsequently a section of central forces was also deployed at the State BJP headquarters.
Apparently alarmed by the speed of the investigations a tetchy Chief Minister warned the Centre and the CBI of administrative retaliation. “If you arrest our men then I can also retaliate by arresting your men. But I would not do that,” she said threatening the CBI officials with “appropriate action, case by case when this Government goes.” The BJP was not going to remain in power she reminded the CBI sleuths.
On the attack on BJP office, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said, “Protests have just begun and will intensify and expand in the coming days.”
The Chief Minister said her party MPs would start a dharna in Delhi from Wednesday while other “senior leaders including Subhendu Adhikary, Firhad Hakim, Kalyan Banerjee, Mukul Roy would stage protests in Bihar’s Kishanganj, Tripura, Assam, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Punjab, Arunachal and Manipur.”
Apparently charged up by the Chief Minister’s no-holds-barred tirade on the Prime Minister and Amit Shah whom she termed the “biggest thieves”, a second team of MPs and Ministers descended at the CGO complex housing the CBI office where Bandopadhyay was detained.
Even as the CBI grappled with Chief Minister’s pressure tactic, inside sources referred to a multitude of documents and CDs that were retrieved from inside a secret chamber of the Rose Valley headquarters.
The CDs and documents -- including vouchers mentioning Bandopadhyay’s name -- suggested his unlawful patronage to the chit fund group --- through a promotional speech in a Rose Valley meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata --- in lieu of favours that included foreign trips, vehicles, jobs for relatives etc, sources added.
Inside reports said Bandopadhyay was to be flown to Bhubaneshwar where he would be questioned face-to-face with another incarcerated MP Tapas Paul who was arrested last week.
Even as reports did rounds that an additional bevy of top Trinamool names may soon be called for interrogation Mamata who was coming out of the State secretariat at Nabanna poured her venom on “Modi Babu,” wondering “why the Prime Minister will not be questioned on how he could get a suit worth Rs 4 crore or Rs 10 crore or whatever it may have cost.”
Tuesday’s was the strongest attack from Mamata on the Prime Minister in recent times. “Modi and Amit Shah should be arrested. They are the biggest thieves. BJP leaders are thieves and goondas,” she said alleging the “notebandi scam the biggest scam which has to be answered by them. They have to give details of the total amount involved in this scam.” She also alleged that the Prime Minister had “involved Adanis in the notebandi scam and he has been entrusted to get new notes printed from abroad.”
She also wondered “why Minister Babul Supriyo will not be arrested for his association with the Rose Valley.”
In Delhi, accusing TMC of making “a planned attack” on the BJP headquarters in Kolkata, the BJP said the violence under the nose of police was condemnable.
Addressing a Press conference, BJP national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said “danga” (violence) has become another name for the TMC with Mamata herself instigating violence. “This is murder of democracy”, he added saying under Mamata democracy has turned into “a danda tantra”.
The BJP leader said violence by the TMC was clear reflection that the Chief Minister was “fearful” as the CBI investigation was at her “doorstep”. He said Mamata who herself is the State Home Minister “gave full freedom to goondas for violence.”
The BJP secretary said 17 lakh poor people were looted in Bengal in the chit fund scam but the Bengal police derailed the probe which CBI is now trying to bring back on track.
Referring to Tuesday’s “seize and violence” by the TMC leaders, Singh said BJP office was only five to 6 minutes drive from the police headquarters but police help came slowly and after about 30 minutes delay.
Meanwhile, Congress lashed out at the Central Government for the arrest of the TMC MP accusing Prime Minister of launching “political vendetta” against his political opponents. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala claimed that CBI and ED were pressurised and pushed by none other than the Prime Minister and his office to unleash political vendetta against “anyone who raises a voice”.
He claimed the day West-Bengal Chief Minister held a joint Press conference with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi “a new wave of political vendetta” has been unleashed by Modi.
He alleged that the Prime Minister took no action against Central Minister Babul Supriyo whose name, he said, figured in chit fund scam. “Did Modiji arrest Babul SupriyoIJ Did CBI call him for questioningIJ” asked Surjewala and claimed that only TMC MPs have been targeted in the scam.