'I don’t want to believe PM behind ED, CBI raids,' says Mamata; blames BJP leaders

The West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution on Monday against the “excess use” of central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the state. It’s the first time a state assembly has adopted a resolution questioning the impartiality of the federal agencies.

It said the central investigating agencies are ‘selectively’ targeting the state’s ruling party and its leaders and creating an “atmosphere of fear”.

Significantly, while launching a scathing attack on the ruling BJP for allegedly misusing the agencies Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought to keep Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of the controversy.

“I don’t want to believe Prime Minister is behind this (letting the central agencies go after the non-BJP leaders). It is the doing of some BJP leaders,” she told the assembly.

Also read: Enforcement Directorate raids up 26 times since 2014: Govt data

“The CBI is no longer under the PMO. It is now under the home ministry,” she said. Without naming anyone, she blamed home minister Amit Shah for the alleged misuse of central investigating agencies.

Fresh handle for CPM, Cong

Her refusal to blame Modi for the excessive use of central agencies is likely to give a fresh handle to the opposition CPI (M) and the Congress, which are alleging that there had been a ‘setting’ between the prime minister and Bengal chief minister.

Even some state BJP leaders like Tathagata Roy have raised the same allegation.

“Kolkata is agog with apprehension of a ‘setting’. Which means a secret understanding between Modiji and Mamata, whereby the thieves of Trinamool and/or the murderers of BJP workers would go scot-free. Please convince us that there would be no such ‘setting’,” Roy had tweeted ahead of a meeting between Modi and Banerjee in New Delhi last month.

Chief Minister in the past had strongly refuted the allegation. But her remark is expected to rekindle the allegation.

Earlier, TMC MLAs Nirmal Ghosh and Tapas Roy moved the resolution. It was passed with 189 voting in favour of it and 69 against.

Chargesheet against Partha

Minutes before the resolution was passed, in a related development, the ED filed a 172-page chargesheet in the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, claiming that it unearthed ill-gotten assets worth over Rs 103 crore held by former education minister and TMC leader Partha Chatterjee and his close-aide Arpita Mukherjee.

Also read: Cancel Tejashwi Yadav’s bail for using threatening language: CBI tells Delhi court

Several thousand pages of documents were submitted with the chargesheet by the investigating agency in a special ED court in Kolkata to support its claim.

The chargesheet has been filed 58 days after the former minister was arrested.