West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced her decision to go on an indefinite dharna on Kolkata’s Metro channel to protest what she said was the Centre trying to enforce a “coup” in the state. This was a protest against the CBI officers trying to enter Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s house this evening apparently to “interrogate” him in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam.
Banerjee’s announcement of an indefinite sit-in followed a meeting in Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s residence on Loudon Street on Sunday evening, where officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) tried to enter a few hours earlier. She said that the BJP-led government of Narendra Modi, the party’s national president Amit Shah and national security adviser Ajit Doval had planned it because it was impossible for the BJP to fight with her democratically.
Banerjee said that her sit-in on Metro channel was to protect democracy and the people. “It is worse situation than the Emergency. They cannot face me politically, so they are going for these methods,” she said. “They are trying to run parallel administration in every state and trying to destroy the federal structure,” she said.
She appealed to leaders of the 23 political parties of the opposition to extend their support in her efforts to save the country’s democracy and its people.
Banerjee explained that there was a High Court stay in the matter and still the CBI team had come outside the police commissioner’s house. Asked if they had arrest warrant, Banerjee said, “no”. She said that according to the court order, officers of both sides could sit together and discuss the matter, and thus the question of interrogating Kumar did not arise.
According to Banerjee, there were reports that CBI officers had been called and told “to do something” on January 19, the day she had organised a massive rally of the Opposition in Kolkata, attended by Opposition leaders from all over the country. “The people will decide whom to elect and whom to reject in an election… but every time there is an election — be it 2013, 2014, 2016 or now 2019 — there are such attempts to use the CBI, when the chit fund companies were operating right from the 1980s,” she said.
Banerjee added that she had not reacted when many of her party leaders were arrested by the CBI. “But today, it is an attack on the force. It is a post of the police commissioner, it is not about an individual officer, and so I have to do something about it,” she said. “They are trying to arrest someone who protects the lives of thousands of people. What audacity!” she said. “Tomorrow, they will raid the home secretary’s house and then the chief secretary’s house,” she said.
Mamata added that her government had arrested the Saradha chief and had formed the Special Investigating Team to probe the money laundering and returned Rs 300 crore to those who had invested money in the company.
She said officers of the Central agency had been let off “despite what they had done”. Banerjee went to Esplanade area at night for the sit-in and said she would hold her cabinet meeting in the area tomorrow, and the state budget would be placed in the Assembly after that.
Earlier in the evening, there was high drama outside police commissioner’s house on Loudon Steet, where a team of CBI officers reached, but were stopped from entering the CP’s house. Some officers went to the nearby Park Street police station, and after an hour or so, a group of CBI officers were apparently “held” by the Kolkata Police. As per Banerjee’s comment, they were let off.
There were recent reports in the media on Saturday which claimed that the CBI was “looking for” Kumar to interrogate him in connection with the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams, and that he had “gone missing”. These reports said quoting CBI officers that the central investigating agency might arrest him. These reports were refuted by chief minister Mamata Banerjee earlier today. The Kolkata Police authorities too wrote a post on their Facebook page saying the CP was in Kolkata and attending office. The Kolkata Police also threatened legal action against these reports.
Some of the officers were led to a Kolkata Police vehicle and taken to Shakespeare Sarani police station. Also, huge contingent of police were sent to the CGO complex and Nizam Palace, both CBI offices.
Around 7 pm, the CM reached Kumar’s house, where she met the top officials of the administration.
