After the arrest of Partha Chatterjee in a corruption case, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress hit the court again. Due to a public interest case, 19 heavyweight leaders of the party are now under the surveillance of India’s central investigation agency, Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A person named Biplab Kumar Chowdhury filed a public interest case in the Calcutta High Court questioning the property of several leaders and ministers of the ruling party in the state. The case was heard on Monday in the Division Bench of the Chief Justice of the High Court. The judges directed the ED to be a party to the hearing of the case.
Former Trinamool government minister Parth was arrested in the case of corruption in the appointment of government teachers. He is currently in the Presidency Jail. Indian politics is in turmoil due to his arrest. In this situation, the claim of the plaintiff in the Calcutta High Court case is that if the information given to the Election Commission is scrutinized, it will be understood how the assets of leaders and ministers have increased. Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, Member of Parliament Arjun Singh, MLA Madan Mitra, former minister Sobhan Chattopadhyay are also named in the case.
Apart from this, the names are Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick, Law Minister Malay Ghatak, Former North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Dev, MLA Iqbal Ahmed, MLA Swarna Kamal Saha, Minister Bratya Basu, Disaster Minister Javed Khan, Youth Welfare Minister Arup Roy, Former Minister Abdur Rezzak Molla, Former Irrigation Minister Rajiv Banerjee, Bidhannagar Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta, Haldia MLA Shiuli Saha, Speaker Biman Banerjee, former Finance Minister Amit Mitra.
It is said in the application of the case, since 2011, the property of the leaders and ministers of the ruling party has increased many times. The amount of assets shown in election affidavits has increased abnormally in 10 years. The court wanted to implicate ED in the case as it is resource-related. The petitioner will send a letter to the ED following the instructions. ED will clarify their role in the next hearing.
