KOLKATA: The Nobel medallion theft that shook the nation 18 years ago was dragged into West Bengal's politics on Monday when the state celebrated the 161st birth anniversary of the Bengali icon Rabindranath Tagore as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lamented that the CBI's failure to recover it is a 'big insult' to the people of the state, while BJP leader Rahul Sinha linked the ruling party to the incident.
"The CBI couldn't recover the stolen medallion because of non-cooperation from the state government. Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had assured that she would find Tagore's Nobel if the CBI fails. Now it is her job to bring back Bengal's pride. The TMC was involved in the theft," Sinha said on the occasion of the Nobel laureate’s birth anniversary at the party headquarters in north Kolkata.
Shortly after Sinha’s allegation, the Bengal CM hit out at the CBI, which probed the theft, on the same issue at an event organised by the state government. "This was the first Nobel that we had received and someone snatched it away from us. It pains me to think that the Nobel could not be traced even after so many years. This happened during the Left Front regime. I do not know if any evidence still exists. The failure on the part of CBI is a big insult to the people of Bengal," Mamata said in her address expressing her apprehension that the central agency might have closed the probe by now.
TMC’s general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh rubbished Sinha’s allegation. "It is baseless. When the theft took place, the Left Front government was in Bengal. How can the TMC be linked with the incident?" he asked.