NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that there is complete constitutional anarchy and lawlessness in West Bengal, citing the recent incident involving the wife of West Bengal Chief Minister’s nephew and Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee.
Banerjee is the nephew of Trinamool president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The incident in question happened on the intervening night of March 15 and March 16 after Abhishek’s wife Rujira Narula and her sister arrived at Netaji Subhas Bose International Airport on a Thai Airways flight.
The West Bengal Police reportedly intervened after Customs officials held Narula for allegedly carrying excess gold without declaration.
Mehta claimed that the central agencies were in a perpetual state of fear and were hounded for performing their duties, saying, “This woman (Narula) was stopped at the Kolkata airport by the Custom officials to check her luggage. She also happens to be the wife of a sitting MP of the ruling party. Suddenly, local police started coming in asking Custom officials to stop from doing their duty.”
He added that policemen kept coming in and the Custom officials were also threatened with an FIR if they did not let the woman go without checking.
Earlier this week, the Election Commission had also sought a report on the alleged incident at the Kolkata airport.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the state government, refuted these allegations contending that the central government was trying to make headlines for the media.
The court then scheduled the case for further hearing on April 8.
Notice to telcos
The Supreme Court issued notice to mobile service providers Vodafone and Airtel on a CBI plea that they were not cooperating with the investigation into the Saradha chit fund scam case.
The premier central investigating agency claimed that they were not being provided with full call detail records (CDRs) of the accused in the scam despite repeated requests.