West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar seeking his intervention to put an end to the alleged misuse of police to browbeat and implicate the party workers and hinder his election campaign.

"It is under very compelling circumstances that I am writing to bring to your attention and seek your immediate intervention to put an end to the blatant acts of misuse of the law by the law enforcement agencies themselves in implicating persons affiliated to the Congress on false and frivolous charges with the obvious intention of marring the party's electoral prospects," Chowdhury said in his letter to the CEC.

He alleged that the party workers were being framed and put behind bars in false cases only to mar his chances in the Lok Sabha polls.

"I wish to highlight here, the specific case of Shri Bachu Mondal, an elected Panchayat Samithi Member and Opposition Leader from the Congress Party from Berhampore block, who was arrested on the day of Holi on flimsy and frivolous grounds... Today, i.e. the 24th April, 2024 although Shri Mondal was granted bail by the Court, the authorities once again chose to book him on account of the fictitious charge of carrying counterfeit currency and Arms Act," he said.

Chowdhury said the entire episode of Mondal's detention, arrest and lodgment in jail on "brazenly frivolous and fictional charges", and similar acts of framing of several other Congress supporters and leaders is very evidently a systematically planned exercise which is aimed at demoralising the Congress workers, and thereby stalling and hindering his election campaign, the leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha alleged.

He also cited some other cases where his workers and close associates were being harassed by the police officials.

"The facts relating to detention, framing of false charges and harassment of Congress workers obviously calls for immediately replacing these officials from the posts they are holding. I had, in fact, expressed my apprehension about the occurrence of these type of incidents with the Congress workers with the SP, Berhampore and also forewarned him.

"However, to my dismay, the police force under his control in Berhampore is, by and large, hand in glove with, and is a part of this dirty game of demoralizing my party workers and me from carrying on with the electioneering for the polls which are scheduled very shortly," Chowdhury said.

Under the circumstances, he said, he can only look upon the Election Commission for ensuring justice by way of restraining and bringing to book, the officials who have been blatantly misusing the law to browbeat, harass and implicate the Congress party workers, and thereby hinder his election campaign.

"Given the factual position at the ground level in Berhampore constituency, I can, under the circumstances, only eagerly look upon the Election Commission to take corrective steps immediately, so that the process of my electioneering does not continue to be hampered with the mechanizations of people, including the Police who are in authority at the district and state level," the Congress leader said in his letter to CEC.

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