Guv should resign on moral grounds for links in Jain hawala case: TMC

KOLKATA: A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's name figured in the Jain hawala case of 1990, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy on Tuesday said the Governor should quit immediately on moral grounds due to his alleged involvement in the scandal.

Demolishing Governor Dhankhar's claim that he had never been charge-sheeted in the Jain hawala case and all accused in the case had been acquitted, Roy said such blatant lies from a Governor were never expected.

Roy alleged that the name 'Jagdeep Dhankhar' had figured on a page of a diary allegedly used by hawala dealers. "In the diary of Jain, there is a mention of the name of Dhankhar who had taken Rs 5 lakh kickback. Also, the name of Arif Mohammad Khan was there. Dhankhar should quit immediately on moral grounds," he said.

The TMC MP also wondered as to how the Prime Minister could be unaware of Dhankhar's antecedents before his appointment as Bengal Governor.

Roy, while quoting Vineet Narain, who congratulated Mamata Banerjee for raising the Jain hawala case, said the matter had not been heard in the Supreme Court and so the question of getting acquittal in the case did not arise. On social media, Narain stated: "I congratulate Mamata Banerjee for raising the Jain hawala case. I have been fighting since 1993 against this case in which terror funding, corruption and hawala were involved. No political party or social organisations who claim themselves to be patriotic have ever demanded a thorough inquiry into the matter." Earlier, Dhankhar had challenged Banerjee's statement. He had said that he had never been charge-sheeted and all those accused in the case had been acquitted.

Roy said Dhankhar was the deputy minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the VP Singh government between April 23, 1990, and November 10, 1990. Again, he was the deputy minister of Finance (Revenue) from November 1990 to May 1991 in the Chandrasekhar government. Roy demanded that Dhankhar should let people know "who was that Dhankhar whose name had appeared in the diary of Jain."

Meanwhile, TMC's Mohua Moitra alleged that Dhankhar was involved in the allotment of residential plots that later got cancelled by a Full Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. She tweeted: "Man of integrity Governor WB was beneficiary of illegal residential land allotment which later came to be cancelled by a Full Bench of Punjab & Haryana HC. Was this also constitutional, Uncleji?"

Bratya Basu, the state Education minister, demanded that in view of the series of activities of the Governor like holding press conferences now and then, using social media to express his opinions and giving interviews to private television channels, which had not been clearly mentioned in the Indian Constitution, the Centre should come up with statements to clear the "grey area," he said. "Technology was not so advanced and hence the Indian Constitution is silent about this. Dhankhar is using this silence for his own benefit," Basu maintained.