Kolkata, March 8 (IANS) With the Enforcement Directorate (ED) succeeding in taking Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal to New Delhi for questioning in the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam, the ruling Trinamool Congress has slipped into silent mode while the state BJP leadership is going overboard over the development.
Till Mondal left for New Delhi on Tuesday evening, Trinamool Congress leaders avoided commenting on the development claiming that since the matter was initiated following a court order, the leadership does not have any comment.
Only a mild reaction was available from the state municipal affairs & urban development minister and the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Firhad Hakim.
“Since it is a court matter, I would not like to make any comment on the legal specifics. But all I can say is that we have full faith in the judicial system. I am also confident that the agency rule that is going on in the country now will end at one time or the other. The people will have the final word,” Hakim said.
Incidentally, there was not a single comment from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the matter since Tuesday although she was one who vociferously backed her party’s Birbhum district president since the latter’s arrest by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in August last year in connection with the cattle smuggling scam.
Chief of BJP’s national information & technology cell and co-in-charge of the party’s West Bengal unit, Amit Malviya has issued a Twitter message claiming that the development is an indication that the Trinamool Congress’s rule in West Bengal has started showing signs of its end. “Anubrata Mondal, dreaded criminal and right hand man of Mamata Banerjee, has been shifted to Delhi. She couldn’t save him. He is being investigated for several crimes.” He thrived under her patronage. Finally, Mamata Banerjee’s blood soaked empire, built on crime is crumbling, Malviya’s Twitter message read.
BJP’s national vice- president and party MP Dilip Ghosh said that the event of Mondal being taken to Delhi marks the beginning of bad days of many other Trinamool Congress leaders. “In his home turf Mondal was disclosing a lot of information pertaining to the scam , which he will be forced to divulge now. Bad days are ahead for many more Trinamool Congress leaders,” Ghosh said.
–IANS
src/shb/