They aren’t going to leave me till Budget Session: Sudip

In his first statement after getting arrested, Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said, “They are not going to leave me till the forthcoming Budget Session and such a decision has been taken as I had raised my voice against demonetisation.”

Bandyopadhyay spoke on his way to Khurda Court, where he was produced on Monday afternoon, from CBI’s office. He was arrested on January 3 in connection with the Rose Valley Group scam and was taken to Bhubaneswar by flight the same night. He was remanded in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) when produced before the Khurda Court. His CBI custody has been extended till January 12 by the court he was produced before on Monday.

Pleading bail for Bandyopadhyay, his counsel Saurya Sundar Das submitted before the Court that the CBI had failed to provide any document that establishes connection of the MP with the chit fund group. The counsel of the central investigating agency pleaded before the court to extend the CBI custody of Bandyopadhyay by another eight days claiming that they need to question him further.

Many Trinamool Congress supporters went to Bhubaneswar on Monday and they were even present outside the court during the three-hour long hearing that started around 4 pm.

At the same time, hundreds of Trinamool Congress supporters started gathering in Bhubaneswar to attend the party’s protest rally in Lower PMG Square. Trinamool Congress MP Subrata Bakshi will lead the rally on Tuesday. The work to prepare the venue for the protest rally was taking place on a war footing. Party supporters from the local areas will start pouring into the place from morning onwards and they will demand release of Bandyopadhyay after condemning the move of “using CBI for political purpose”.

There were protest rallies in Bhubaneswar both outside CBI office and the court on Monday. Trinamool Congress workers and supporters from the area staged a demonstration and shouted anti-Modi slogans for framing their party MPs by putting false allegations against them. They also shouted slogans outside the court demanding release of Bandyopadhyay.