KOLKATA: West Bengal became the first state to pass an Assembly resolution against the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and other central agencies on Monday saying they are "selectively targeting" ruling party functionaries and "creating an atmosphere of fear".
The move came at a time when the central agencies are probing high-profile cases in the state, including the school recruitment scam, cattle smuggling and coal pilferage.
TMC MLAs Nirmal Ghosh and Tapas Roy tabled the resolution that read 'Central agencies are selectively targeting West Bengal ruling party leaders and creating an atmosphere of fear'.
The resolution also mentioned the arrests of senior minister Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee by the CBI shortly after the 2021 Assembly polls in connection with the Narada sting operation case.
"Despite names of BJP leaders featuring in chit fund scams, the agencies are overlooking and probing just one side of the matter," the resolution read.
It also stated that the central agencies are a part of larger conspiracy to topple democratically elected governments and accomplices in fanning the politics of fear.
Meanwhile, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she doesn't believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is behind the alleged excesses of central agencies in the state. She instead blamed a section of the BJP leaders for misusing them to serve their interests, adding that the CBI now reports to the Union Home Ministry, controlled by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In past two months, the ED and the CBI arrested former TMC minister Partha Chatterjee in an alleged recruitment scam in schools and rounded up party's strongman Anubrata Mondal in an alleged cattle smuggling case.
The ED also interrogated chief minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the TMC's national general secretary, on several occasions in connection with a money-laundering case linked to coal pilferage in West Burdwan district.
The central agency also interrogated Abhishek's wife Rujira and his sister-in-law Maneka Gambhir.
Mamata, on several occasions, accused the BJP-led centre of using the central agencies to further the saffron camp's goals.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES:
(With online desk inputs)