In the backdrop of the arrest of senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal by CBI in a cattle smuggling case on Thursday, the party, while asserting it does not support corruption, questioned the impartiality of the central agencies.
The ruling party of West Bengal announced that it would hit the streets for the next two days against the vendetta politics allegedly being pursued by the BJP-led central government by using its agencies.
Senior leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the TMC will not take any action against Mondal, the party’s Birbhum district president, now and will wait for the law to take its own course.
“The party doesn’t support any form of corruption or wrongdoing. We have zero tolerance for corruption. The party will take the appropriate decision (on Mondal) at the right time. There is a proper procedure in the party regarding such cases. An allegation against someone doesn’t prove him guilty,” Bhattacharya said.
Referring to allegations that central agencies go slow in corruption cases against BJP leaders, she questioned their impartiality.
“We have serious doubts about the functioning of the central agencies. We have seen that they are silent when it comes to taking action against BJP leaders against whom there are allegations of corruption,” she said.
“For next two days, protest rallies will be taken out in various parts of the state against the functioning of the central agencies,” the TMC leader said.
The CBI, after interrogating Mondal for around an hour on Thursday morning, arrested him from his residence in Bolpur in Birbhum district allegedly for not cooperating in its probe into the cattle smuggling case.
The TMC’s stand on the issue of Mondal was in sharp contrast to that of another party heavyweight Partha Chatterjee who was arrested on July 23 by the Enforcement Directorate in the school jobs scam. The ED found crores of rupees in cash in flats owned by a woman considered close to him.
Chatterjee was stripped of his cabinet portfolios and party posts within five days of his arrest. The TMC did not hit the streets against central agencies following his arrest.
“What Partha Chatterjee has done is shameful. We condemn it. But Anubrata Mondal is a good leader and an organiser. The CBI has arrested him based on allegations. It has to be proved in the court,” he said.
