Mamata govt to move motion in Bengal Assembly session to condemn ED, CBI

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government will move a motion in the West Bengal Assembly to condemn the role of Central probe agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the state during the Budget Session starting next week.

Sources in the Trinamool Congress’s legislative party in the state Assembly said that during the session, the Treasury Bench will also move another motion condemning the manner in which the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is being conducted in the state.

The Budget Session will start on February 3 and will end on February 9. The West Bengal minister of state for finance (independent charge) will be presenting the “vote on accounts” for the financial year 2006-27 on February 5.

The full budget will be presented by the new state cabinet after the Assembly elections are over.

Insiders from Trinamool Congress’ legislative party said that both special motions will be moved during the forthcoming Budget Session by the state Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.

The motion condemning the role of CBI and ED is extremely significant in the backdrop of the recent controversies over ED’s simultaneous raid and search operations at the Indian Political Action Committee’s Salt Lake office and the residence of I-PAC’s co-founder, Pratik Jain, at Loudon Street in central Kolkata. While the simultaneous raid and search operations were being conducted at the two places, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accompanied by top bureaucrats and police officials, stormed into both places one after another, taking away several files and electronic documents.

Currently, a petition and a counter-petition in the matter are being heard at the Supreme Court. In the main petition by ED, the Central agency had accused the Chief Minister of misusing her constitutional power by hindering an ongoing investigation process.

In the counter-petition, Trinamool Congress had accused ED of attempting to collect important documents related to the party’s strategies from these two places and hand them over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), considering that I-PAC has been operating as a voter-strategy agency for Trinamool Congress since 2020.

IANS