KOLKATA: A speech by a legislator of the ruling TMC questioning the integrity of judges, created a flutter in legal and political circles on Friday.
Addressing a TMC workers’ meeting at Birbhum, 180 kms from here, party MLA Monirul Islam said, “Judges are sitting and enjoying properties worth `10 crores and `20 crores given to them for a nominal sum of one rupee. Naturally they will sing praises of the Left Front. Will they praise our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee?
“Mamata Banerjee had never tried to acquire land of minorities, Scheduled Castes and Tribes,” he claimed. The TMC MLA from Labhpur in the same district had earlier been in the midst of a controversy for claiming to have killed three CPM workers himself at a public meeting and also threatening to behead a Congress leader.
He faces eight criminal cases for rioting and injuring people during unlawful assemblies.
On the matter, senior Calcutta High Court lawyer and CPM leader Bikash Bhattacharya said, “This is not surprising as the Chief Minister herself had stated that court verdicts could be purchased.”
Another senior lawyer and Congress leader Arunabha Ghosh commented, “If a TMC MLA is saying such absurd things, then probably his leader Mamata Banerjee would know which judge got property worth crores for only one rupee, if at all she had given it.
“People will lose faith in Parliamentary democracy because of such uneducated MLAs. Now after a contempt of court petition is filed, he will come and apologise. These are elements good enough to ensure the downfall of Mamata.”