West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee creating hurdles for CBI in its Narada sting operations probe: BJP

KOLKATA: The BJP on Monday lashed out at TMC workers over their agitations across the state, following the arrest of party leaders in the Narada sting case, and said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her supporters, instead of coming in the way of CBI probe, should opt for a legal remedy.

Banerjee had rushed to the CBI office, shortly after state ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and TMC MLA Madan Mitra were arrested by the central agency. Former TMC leader and minister Sovan Chatterjee has also been apprehended in the case.

CM of West Bengal @MamataOfficial who is under oath to maintain law and order in the state is sadly indulging in threatening law enforcing agencies and creating hurdles for the CBI. This is very unfortunate for the people of Bengal #NizamPalace

— Kailash Vijayvargiya (@KailashOnline) May 17, 2021

The CM apparently asked the probe agency to arrest her, too, when asked to leave the office.

Taking to Twitter, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed that Banerjee was creating hurdles for the CBI. "CM of West Bengal @MamataOfficial who is under oath to maintain law and order in the state is sadly indulging in threatening law enforcing agencies and creating hurdles for the CBI," the BJP's Bengal minder tweeted.

"This is very unfortunate for the people of Bengal," Vijayvargiya added.

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, too, condemned the protest by TMC activists, and said the agitation, amid the COVID-19 lockdown, only goes on to show that they have no respect for the law of the land. "Instead of demonstrating on the streets, the party should seek a legal remedy," Ghosh stated.

Slamming TMC activists who sought to know why BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikary were spared, as their names, too, had cropped up in the case, Ghosh asserted that they had "co-operated with the agency, unlike others who have been taken into custody".

The sting operation was purportedly conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 wherein people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.

The tapes were made public just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal. Both Roy and Adhikary were TMC members when the purported tapes had surfaced. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017.