Kolkata, Jan 16 (IANS) The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has directed the party's West Bengal unit to launch a massive campaign across the state on the developments in the Supreme Court on January 15, when the apex court stayed the FIRs registered by the West Bengal Police against Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with the recent searches at the premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain in Kolkata.
Saying the petitions raise serious questions of alleged interference by state agencies in a central investigation, a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Vipul Pancholi issued notice to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and others on the ED's pleas alleging obstruction during the search operations conducted last week.
"BJP's central observer for West Bengal, Bhupender Yadav, had a meeting with the state BJP president in West Bengal and the party’s Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya in the matter. In the meeting, it was decided that the BJP will go for a massive campaign throughout the state, highlighting the finer points of the apex court’s directions on Thursday," said a state committee member of the BJP.
At the same time, the BJP’s state leadership in West Bengal on Friday announced that they would approach a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, challenging an order by the single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh of the same court on Thursday rejecting the state BJP’s plea seeking permission to hold a protest demonstration in front of the state secretariat Nabanna at Mandirtala in Kolkata-adjacent Howrah district, over Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s alleged move to hinder the ED’s simultaneous raids on I-PAC.
According to the Chief Whip of the BJP’s legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly, Shankar Ghosh, holding a protest demonstration on such an issue in front of the state secretariat is the democratic right of his party as the principal opposition party in the state.
“We will approach a division bench of the Calcutta High Court in the matter at the earliest,” Ghosh said.
