Trinamool Congress decides to step up protest against Madan Mitra arrest

The Trinamool Congress has decided to intensify its campaign against alleged “political vendetta” of the BJP and hold protests in Bengal and also in front of Parliament on Monday in the wake of the arrest of the West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra in relation to the Saradha scam. 

“The campaign against BJP's political vendetta will be intensified,” TMC Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of party supremo Mamata Banerjee, said.

“The protest by Trinamool workers will continue indefinitely. We are not worried by the impact right now,” said Trinamool MP Sisir Adhikari. 

Banerjee wondered why the CBI, which started the probe on a Supreme Court directive, did not investigate the rise of the Saradha Group since 2006 when it was formed during the CPI(M)-led Left Front regime in West Bengal. 

“If a post mortem of a body is held, it is done not just of the head, but the whole body,” he said alleging that “real culprits are going scot-free”. 

At the CBI office in Kolkata, arrested Trinamool minister Madan Mitra told reporters, “I am being framed. I am a victim of a political conspiracy. I have nothing to say other than what the Chief Minister has already said”. 

In Bhowanipore, Mitra’s stronghold, TMC workers allegedly did not allow shops to open, and hawkers were asked to join the protest rally. The TMC youth wing blocked railway lines at Basirhat for hours.

Road blockades were reported from Taki and Kamarhati in North 24-Parganas, and from Burdwan, Howrah and several other places in the state.