Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said he will leave the matter to the discretion of people. (File)
Kolkata:
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said he was left flabbergasted today as Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee launched a tirade against him, claiming that it was at his behest that the three leaders and a former city mayor were arrested in the Narada sting operation case.
Mr Dhankhar said he was stunned to have heard such an allegation, but added that he would leave the matter to the discretion of the people of Bengal.
“The governor is hounding the Trinamool Congress from morning to evening. He played an instrumental role in the arrest of the four leaders,” Kalyan Banerjee said in Hooghly district.
He urged people to lodge complaints against the governor at police stations.
“I know about the constitutional provision that say no criminal proceeding can be initiated against the governor, but I will request each and everyone to lodge police complaints in areas where the governor is found provoking crimes, violence and religious divide,” Mr Banerjee said.
The MP said that the cases filed against him “can be taken up” for legal action, as and when Mr Dhankhar ceases to be the governor.
Mr Dhankhar had on May 7 sanctioned prosecution of ministers Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee on a request by the CBI, which is probing the sting operation that had purportedly caught on camera politicians accepting bribes.
All four of them, arrested by the central agency amid high drama on May 17, were state ministers at the time of the alleged commission of crime.
Addressing Kalyan Banerjee as a senior functionary of the Trinamool, a parliamentarian and an advocate, Mr Dhankhar tweeted: “Just stunned but leave the matter to sound discretion of cultured people of West Bengal and media.”
Kalyan Banerjee, in a veiled dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also said that “tears won’t help an incompetent person retain power as he has failed to handle the COVID-19 situation”.
“Majority of Indians are waiting for the dawn of the country’s second Independence Day in 2024,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)