Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday drew flak from opposition parties for standing by a controversial Trinamool Congress leader, allegedly involved in a murder case and known for his repeated comments inciting violence.
Anubrata Mandal, Trinamool’s Birbhum district party president, is one of those against whom the family of a murdered man — the father of a dissident party worker — have made allegations of involvement in the crime.
“Keshto (Anubrata Mandal) is sitting here. Many people are after him. He is a good organiser. And I am always prepared to go to the last for a good organiser,” Banerjee said addressing students and youth activists of the party at Burdwan district’s Durgapur.
Claiming that Mandal was unwell, Banerjee said: “He suffers from an oxygen shortage. He has to carry oxygen with him. We must take account of this in a humane way.”
The chief minister’s patronising remarks about Mandal came a day after the Calcutta High Court observed political rivalry as the cause of the murder of Sagar Ghosh, the father of Hriday Ghosh, a former Trinamool worker of Birbhum who contested as an independent candidate in the rural polls in 2013.
The court has ordered the director general of police to constitute a Special Investigation Team to probe the crime, which took place at the victim’s home in Parui village of the district.
The family has alleged Mandal’s hand in the murder.
Justice Dipanka Datta described the probe so far as “far from being satisfactory” and said the SIT and the police chief would only be accountable to the court and not to the political executive for their actions in the course of the investigation.
IANS
