NIA grills TMC's prize catch Chhatradhar Mahato in Bengal's tribal stronghold
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) grilled Trinamool Congress leader and former convenor of a Maoist-backed people’s committee Chhatradhar Mahato for two consecutive days since Friday (August 28) in over decade-old cases.
Mahato was released from jail in February 2020 after ten years. He was subsequently inducted into the state committee of the ruling Trinamool Congress as secretary last month.
His induction into the TMC assumes political significance as the state’s ruling Congress had been constantly losing ground in the once Maoist-dominated Jangalmahal area of the state spread across West Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram districts.
Mahato as a convenor of the erstwhile People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) was the poster boy of the Maoist backed people’s movement against the then Left-Front government in the tribal-dominated Jangalmahal area.
The TMC is hoping to revive its political fortune with the help of Mahato’s past popularity in the area where the RSS, the ideological fountainhead of the BJP, has significantly expanded its presence in the past few years with the help of Vansvasi Kalyan Ashram and Ekal Vidyalayas.
Soon after Mahato was released from the jail ostensibly due to the softening of the stand by the state government earlier this month, the NIA appealed to a special court in Kolkata for re-investigation of two cases filed against him in Jhargram and Shalbani 11 years ago.
For the two consecutive days, the TMC leader was questioned in the two cases — one pertaining to the murder of CPI(M) activist Prabir Mahato in Shalbani in 2009 and another related to the abduction of two drivers of Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani Express by PCPA activists in the same year demanding the release of Mahato, who was arrested in another case earlier that year.
Sources said he was interrogated by two NIA officers at the Cobra Camp of Battalion No. 206 in Shalbani in West Midnapore district for two consecutive days.
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Talking to media persons, Mahato alleged that the questioning was politically motivated as he had joined the TMC. He said he had nothing to do with the two cases stating that he was in custody when the Rajdhani Express incident took place.
Incidentally, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the virtual meeting with her counterparts from some non-BJP ruled states had accused the Central government of trying to muzzle opposition voices using central agencies.
Opposition leaders often term central investigating agencies as recruiting agents of the ruling BJP as several scam-tainted leaders such as Mukul Roy in West Bengal and Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam joined the party allegedly to scuttle the CBI investigations against them.
Roy and Sharma were under the CBI scanner in Saradha chit fund case. Investigation is also pending against Roy in the Narada sting case.
Amidst rumours of Roy getting impatient in the BJP for not getting due importance, the enforcement directorate served a notice to him in the sting case earlier this month asking him to submit his asset details.
