Mamata camps at CBI office for 6 hrs as 2 ministers arrested
A huge crowd of Trinamool workers protested outside the building as the ministers were arrested and tried to break barricades. They also threw stones at paramilitary personnel, who used batons to try and remove them, NDTV reports.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar alleged “total lawlessness and anarchy” and warned of “repercussions”.
Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee, appealed for calm. “I urge everyone to abide by the law and refrain from any activity that violates lockdown norms for the sake of the larger interest of Bengal and its people. We have utmost faith in the judiciary and the battle will be fought legally,” he tweeted.
Central forces arrived at the homes of the ministers and two other leaders this morning and took them to the CBI office, in a dramatic escalation of the Bengal-Centre clash brewing since Mamata Banerjee’s election victory. The two others arrested are Trinamool MLA Madan Mitra and former Trinamool leader Sovan Chatterjee. Sovan Chatterjee, Kolkata’s former mayor and senior minister, quit the Trinamool in 2019, joined the BJP but quit that party too this March.
Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari, who were among the Trinamool leaders allegedly caught taking bribes, have since joined the BJP. Both were Trinamool parliamentarians when the crime was committed but their prosecution was never sanctioned. They are now BJP MLAs after contesting the state election.
Governor Dhankhar had earlier this month sanctioned action against the four arrested today, though a state assembly Speaker has to clear the prosecution of MLAs. The CBI, bypassing the Speaker, approached the Governor instead, in January.
The Governor said he had the authority to grant sanction because they were ministers sworn in by him in 2011.
