New Delhi [India], January 5 (ANI): After ED officials travelling in a vehicle allegedly came under attack in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia on Friday launched a blistering attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, claiming law and order was coming apart on her watch in the state.
According to sources, ED officials were travelling in a car when the vehicle was pelted with stones and its window panes broken in the North 24 Parganas district on Thursday night.
Speaking on the incident on Friday, the BJP spokesperson said two to three ED officials were injured in the attack, claiming that it was carried out by the ruling Trinamool Congress ‘goons’ and Rohingya Muslims who crossed over into Bengal illegally.
Addressing reporters at a press conference in the national capital on Friday, the BJP leader claimed that CM Mamata was presiding over a ‘Jungle Raj’ (reign of things) in the state.
“The ED officers, who were carrying out an investigation, came under attack by TMC goons and Rohingyas, who infiltrated Bengal. Jungle Raj is prevailing in West Bengal under the very nose of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” the BJP leader said.
“Law and order have collapsed in Bengal but Mamata Banerjee is unmoved. Two to three ED officers were seriously injured in the incident,” Bhatia claimed.
An Enforcement Directorate (ED) team was attacked and its vehicle damaged on Thursday night at Sandeshkhali village of the North 24 Parganas.
The attack took place as the ED team was on the way to carry out raids at the homes of block-level leaders of the TMC in connection with the alleged ration scam case, an official of the central probe agency told ANI.
The ED officials were on the way to raid the homes of former Bongaon Municipality chairman Shankar Adhya and TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan in connection with the ration ‘scam’ case.
Former state Food and Civil Supplies minister and TMC old-timer, Jyotipriya Mullick, was arrested and put behind bars earlier in connection with the case.
Voicing his outrage over the incident, West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Friday labelled the attack as ‘ghastly’ while summoning the Home Secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP).
“It was a ghastly incident. It was alarming and deplorable. It is the duty of a civilised government to stop barbarism and vandalism in a democracy. If a government fails in its basic duty, the Constitution of India will take its course. I reserve all my constitutional options for (taking) appropriate action. This pre-election violence should find an early end, and let this be the beginning of that end,” the Bengal Governor said, in a no-holds-barred takedown of the state administration.
Later in the day, Governor Bose visited the ED officials, who sustained serious injuries in the attack and are currently under treatment at a hospital in Kolkata.
A local TMC strongman, Sheikh Shahjahan is also the Fisheries and Animal Resources officer of the North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad and the party’s block president of Sandeshkhali 1.
A member of the raiding ED team, said, “Eight people arrived at the spot out of nowhere. They attacked three of us.”
However, TMC MP Santanu Sen alleged that the officials of the federal agency ‘provoked’ the locals, resulting in a violent response.
“The officers of the central investigating agency, surrounded by central forces, provoked locals. Their actions provoked a response from the people,” he said. (ANI)
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