Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday lashed out at central investigation agencies presumably in the wake of searches by the Enforcement Directorate at the offices of a company linked to her brother and said “our home” was being subjected to “torture daily”.
“They have been subjecting our home to torture daily,” said the Bengal chief minister at an administrative meeting with Durga Puja organisers in Calcutta.
“But I will say this, I am not speaking about myself. They did not go to Harish Chatterjee Street, there’s no point in making such claims… some newspaper published that too, to further instigate. If they do go (to Harish Chatterjee Street), they will, they are free to…,” added Mamata, whose residential address is 30B Harish Chatterjee Street.
Separate ED teams on Monday carried out searches at various offices of Leaps and Bounds Private Limited in New Alipore, Joka and Thakurpukur in Calcutta. The company has alleged links with Sujay Krishna Bhadra alias Kalighater Kaku, who was arrested in May in connection with the ED’s probe into “irregularities” in the appointments at state-aided schools.
The searches continued throughout the night and ended in the early hours of Tuesday. The sleuths collected “digital evidence” from computers, laptops and hard disks, the agency said.
“Yesterday, all night… nobody told me, I found out from lawyers. Without informing anybody… right after the boy returned, the day before yesterday (Sunday). Suddenly, they went to four-five places. I found out that the babus finally left at 6am,” added Mamata, presumably referring to her nephew and Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had returned on Sunday after several weeks on a personal visit to the US.
The names of Abhishek’s father Amit and mother Lata feature as directors of the raided firm. Bhadra had said Abhishek was his boss.
Mamata accused the ED of flouting regulations in the conduct of such exercises.
“What is the rule? There has to be a warrant, or the people at home have to be spoken to, they should be called and duly informed of the purpose of the visit. If it’s a raid, the people of the household will have to be present...,” said the Trinamul chief.
She went on to suggest that the central agencies might even plant incriminating objects to frame a person during such raids. “Let’s consider this hypothetically, that they go to my place without informing me.... Also, who will guarantee that you are not planting an explosive? You are going in, doing things, coming out, without any witnesses. Who will guarantee that you aren’t planting a gun, that you aren’t bringing in crores in cash in a box (to plant)?” she asked.
