NIA has summoned SP Dhan Ram Singh back to Delhi, claims TMC

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders concluded their 24-hour protest at the Mandir Marg police station on Tuesday evening, a day after their detention for staging a dharna outside the Election Commission’s office on Monday.

Meanwhile, TMC, in a post on ‘X’, claimed that NIA has summoned SP Dhan Ram Singh back to Delhi and said: “With our relentless pressure, @NIA_India has been forced to call SP Dhan Ram Singh, caught in cahoots with BJP’s @JitendraAsansol, back to Delhi. Looks like the tainted officer is being transferred. BJP’s stooges like him have no place in Bengal. NIA-BJP = 0, Bengal = 1!”

The party leader Kunal Ghosh, in a post on ‘X’, also claimed that the NIA is sending another officer Rakesh Roshan (IPS) from Patna to Kolkata to supervise the disputed cases.

A delegation of TMC leaders and Members of Parliament (MPs), including Derek O’Brien, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale, Sagarika Ghose, MLA Vivek Gupta, former MPs Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen and Abir Ranjan Biswas and the party’s West Bengal students’ wing vice-president Sudip Raha, had initially met with the full bench of the Election Commission (EC), urging the body to address concerns regarding alleged bias in the functioning of key investigative agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency (NIA), and Income Tax (I-T) department.

Mamata Banerjee’s party has consistently alleged that these agencies favoured the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While speaking to the media persons, Trinamool leaders informed that the police requested the leaders to disperse, but as they persisted with their protest, security personnel forcibly removed and detained them. They were made to board a bus, which, according to O’Brien, circled for approximately an hour and a half before arriving at the Mandir Marg police station. Despite police assertions that the TMC leaders were released on Monday night, they chose to remain at the police station premises throughout the night, continuing their dharna.

Meanwhile, TMC Rajya Sabha member Nadimul Haque informed the media persons: “I was here all night and had gone home in the morning. Now we are not being allowed to enter the police station.”

Another Rajya Sabha member Saket Gokhale, in a post on ‘X’, said: “We 10 MPs and former MPs from the TMC started a 24hr peaceful dharna outside the Election Commission last evening... Delhi Police manhandled us, detained us, taken around Delhi, and finally dumped us at Mandir Marg Police Station.”

The TMC leaders concluded their protest and exited the police station, chanting slogans accusing the BJP of transforming central agencies into its “branch office.” The delegation urged the Commission to ensure a level playing field in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and stop the “misuse” of central agencies against Opposition parties and leaders.

Another Upper House member Dola Sen asserted: “We want the EC to take an impartial stand on the issue and change the heads of these agencies. We were on a 24-hour dharna... Women MPs were detained after sunset, we were not told what the charges were, and only after midnight they told us we were free to go.”

Their sit-in garnered support from members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) such as Saurabh Bharadwaj and Dilip Pandey expressing solidarity with the TMC’s cause. Bharadwaj highlighted the necessity for the Election Commission to address concerns raised by Opposition parties regarding alleged targeting by central agencies.

“TMC leaders went to the EC to demand that the attacks on the Opposition by agencies like ED, I-T (department) and CBI be stopped. Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is campaigning across the country daily while raids are being carried out against Opposition leaders so that they can’t campaign,” Bharadwaj said.

The TMC leaders further reiterated their demand for the EC to intervene and ensure a level playing field in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. They accused the BJP of wielding undue influence over central agencies and emphasised the need for impartiality in their functioning.