Kolkata Police action threat to federal system: Rajnath

Feb 4, 2019

New Delhi: Defending CBI action against the Kolkata Police Commissioner, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said the move to stop the central probe agency from performing its duties is a threat to the federal political system of the country.

Making a statement in the Lok Sabha, the Minister said that he would not hesitate to say that the incident that happened on Sunday indicates of constitutional breakdown in the state.

He said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing a multi-crore chit fund scam and wanted to interrogate Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar in this regard.

“Yesterday (Sunday), the CBI was stopped from performing its lawful duties. This is unprecedented,” Rajnath Singh said during Zero Hour.

He said the CBI acted in line with a Supreme Court order to investigate the Saradha chit fund case and the agency was forced to take action against the officer as he was not cooperating and failed to reply to repeated summons.

“There are allegations of nexus between politicians and influential persons in the scam and the agency is probing the matter as per the direction of the Supreme Court. The stand-off between the agency and the state police is not only unlawful and unfortunate but also poses a grave threat to the federal and political system,” he said.

The Union Minister said if law enforcement agencies would be stopped from performing their duties, it would create chaos.

“We respect the rights of states. The Constitution has given rights to the Centre to ensure lawful conduct of the governments. I don’t hesitate to say that whatever happened yesterday (Sunday), points to constitutional breakdown (in Bengal),” he said.

The BJP leader informed the House that he has sought a detailed report from West Bengal Governor Kesari Nath Tripathi on the issue.

“The Governor has summoned the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police and asked them to take immediate action to resolve the situation,” he said, urging the state government to allow the law enforcement agencies to discharge their duties in a conducive atmosphere.

IANS