A day after the Enforcement Directorate arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Jiban Krishna Saha after he tried to escape by jumping the boundary wall of his house and throwing his mobile phone into the bushes, the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, on Tuesday attacked the party and its leadership.
At a press conference, Adhikari called Saha a “Trinamool chor (thief)” and accused him of being one of “hundreds of collectors” allegedly collecting huge sums of money for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
“He jumped into the mud. If it were a political conspiracy, he should have opened the door to the ED and said, ‘Let us go…where will you take me? Why did he try to escape? Earlier, he had jumped into a pond, and now he jumped into a canal,” Adhikari said.
Saha was arrested from his residence in the Burwan block of Murshidabad district on Monday following a raid of nearly five hours in connection with the investigation into the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam.
“He is not Jiban Krishna Saha; he is Trinamool Chor. He took the money and deposited it with Bhaipo (referring to Abhishek). He is one of the collectors. Bengal has hundreds of such collectors, including Sujoy Krishna Bhadra,” he added.
Adhikari claimed that these individuals cheated unemployed youth out of thousands of crores of rupees, with all the money ultimately being deposited with top TMC leaders. He also directly implicated Mamata Banerjee, calling her a “thief” and stating that the entire system is corrupt.
“This government is full of thieves. It is not about individuals like Jiban Krishna Saha or Partha Chatterjee. The whole system is chor. Against this corrupt system, bring the BJP to power, and the state would not require a central agency. Legally, we will finish them. We promise to change the entire corrupt system if the BJP comes to power. Every year, there will be SSC. Trust the BJP,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari also referenced the post-poll violence cases being investigated by the CBI, stating that as a result, 400 people are currently in jail.
The focus of the ED’s investigation is now on the data contained within Saha’s mobile phones. The agency has recovered the devices, which Saha had attempted to destroy, and is hoping to uncover information related to the money trail and the individuals involved.
The central agency’s probes, which have led to a series of arrests including former minister Partha Chatterjee and TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya, are centred on financial transactions and money laundering.