KOLKATA: The four-day-long confrontation between West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee escalated further after the veteran parliamentarian lodged a counter-complaint against the state’s constitutional head at Hare Street police station on Wednesday.
Seeking to provide information under section 173 (1) of the BNSS, Banerjee, in his complaint, which he filed through his lawyers, sought police action against the governor under multiple sections of the BNS, including those pertaining to criminal conspiracy and acts endangering India's sovereignty, unity and integrity.
"CV Ananda Bose, in agreement with some unknown politically motivated persons having common object, intentionally, willfully, deliberately and purposely made some statements to excite rebellion and/or subversive activities and encouraged feelings of separatist activities against the government and the state of West Bengal, inter alia endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India," Banerjee stated in his complaint.
"I urge the police to investigate the complaints," Banerjee told reporters.
The politician's move came a day after Bose filed an FIR with the same police station on Tuesday, accusing Banerjee of making “derogatory” remarks.
Raj Bhavan had lodged the FIR on Tuesday against Banerjee for his statements alleging Bose of giving shelter to “BJP goons’’ and stocking arms and ammunition inside the Governor’s House premises to kill Trinamool Congress workers.
Banerjee has been booked under various sections of the BNS, including those pertaining to crime to assault or wrongfully restrain the President or Governor intentionally in a manner that can endanger India’s unity and integrity.
Sources at Raj Bhavan said it would file a defamation case against Banerjee in the Calcutta High Court within this week.
Interestingly, the designation of Bose has not been mentioned in the complaints lodged with the police station.
Bose had on Sunday threatened to take legal action against Banerjee for his remarks made on Saturday.
The face-off between Bose and Banerjee aggravated further on Monday after the former asked Kolkata Police to deploy its bomb disposal squad with a sniffer dog, disaster management team and civil defence department to conduct search operations inside the Raj Bhavan premises to find out whether arms and ammunition were lying stacked there.
Police officials, the bomb disposal squad and CRPF personnel conducted combing operations inside the Raj Bhavan premises, including every room, other parts of the building and the lawns, on Monday afternoon under the Governor’s physical supervision.
The MP had made his remarks on Saturday while reacting to Bose’s recent statement on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Referring to multiple media reports of the Governor's past public statements, and accused him of interfering in the electoral process of West Bengal and "wantonly giving provocation to a particular religious community to cause riot and promote enmity among people".
“As long as an incompetent governor like you remains, as long as a BJP-servant governor remains, you will never see anything good happening in West Bengal,” Banerjee added.
(With inputs from PTI)