Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that he has asked for a report from the West Bengal Governor
New Delhi: The BJP today launched a twin attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Parliament and outside. While Union Home Minister, Rajanth Singh, in his statement told the house that it was "unprecedented the way the CBI officers were stopped" in Kolkata on Sunday, his colleague and education minister, Prakash Javadekar, accused Ms Banerjee of shielding those who had once gone to jail for the Saradha scam.
Amid loud slogans by the Opposition calling the investigating agency "tota CBI" or "parrot CBI", Rajnath Singh said, "There may be constitutional breakdown in West Bengal and the Centre has the power to take action to main normalcy in any party of the country...The incident in Kolkata is a threat to federal political system of country." Action was taken against the Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police chief, after the Supreme Court had ordered an investigation into the Saradha chit fund scam and the police chief was summoned many times but he did not respond, the Home Minister told the House.
Rajnath Singh also said he has asked for a report from the West Bengal Governor, who summoned the state Chief Secretary and the police chief and asked them to take "immediate action to resolve the situation." The union home ministry is closely monitoring the situation.
The minister said that central forces had to be deployed at the state CBI office and residences the officers of the probe agency in Kolkata, as the city's police officials surrounded their offices. The CBI team yesterday alleged that they were "obstructed and manhandled" by the police at Rajeev Kumar, the police chief's residence, when they had gone there to question him in connection with the chit fund scam.
The home ministry, which controls the IPS cadre in the country, will now look into the role of some senior police officers for allegedly obstructing the CBI team probing the Saradha scam in Kolkata. Sources said, the ministry will examine whether the officers violated the service conduct rules while preventing questioning of city police commissioner.
The CBI told the Supreme Court today that it has "found substantial material" as evidence against the Kolkata police chief and accused him of "destroying evidence" in the chit fund scam.