TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay held in chit fund case, Kolkata bears the brunt

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee suffered yet another jolt on Tuesday with the arrest of her parliamentary party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the Rose Valley chit fund scam case, while the city had to bear the brunt of Trinamool fury that threw the law and order out of bounds.

Bandyopadhyay was arrested by the CBI on Tuesday evening after a rigorous four-hour grilling at the CGO complex in Salt Lake. The CBI took him in custody with allegations of involvement in the dubious funds scam and non-cooperation with the investigators. According to CBI, Bandyopadhyay was arrested on the charge of “criminal conspiracy” .

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had been in Junglemahal for a pre-scheduled programme, expressed dismay at the news. “It is shocking, stunning. But we are not scared nor will we be cowed down. We will deal with this politically,” she said.

“Narendra Modi and Amit Shah should be arrested immediately. It is under their pressure, following the antidemonetisation campaigns by the Trinamool Congress that the CBI was used to arrest Trinamool leaders.”

Breathing fire at the BJP-led central government, the Trinamool chief said: “I could never imagine that they would arrest Sudipda. I was told by some CBI officers that Modi has asked them to get Abhishek (her nephew and MP) and Sudipda. But they cannot deter me from speaking for the poor.”

All top Trinamool leaders rushed to the CGO Complex from where Bandopadhyay was supposed to be flown to Bhubaneshwar by a late night flight because the Rose valley case was registered there. Top CBI officials said it was a tactical move anticipating disturbing fallouts in the aftermath of the arrests of Trinamool leaders.

Angry Trinamool supporters blocked the city’s main arterial road near the BJP state headquarters and hurled bricks and stones.

Actor-turned-Trinamool MP Tapal Pal was arrested on December 30 in the same case.