What Steps is BJP Taking After SC Ruling on ED Raids?
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
Kolkata, Jan 16 (NationPress) The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has instructed its West Bengal unit to initiate a widespread campaign throughout the state regarding the Supreme Court's latest developments on January 15. The apex court has stayed the FIRs filed by the West Bengal Police against Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials linked to the recent searches conducted at the political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain in Kolkata.
The bench, comprising Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Vipul Pancholi, highlighted that the petitions raise grave questions concerning alleged interference by state agencies in a central investigation. They issued notices to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma, and others regarding the ED's claims of obstruction during last week's search operations.
BJP's central observer for West Bengal, Bhupender Yadav, convened a meeting with the state BJP president and Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya to discuss the issue. The outcome of this meeting was a resolution to embark on a substantial campaign statewide, emphasizing the critical aspects of the apex court’s directives from Thursday, as noted by a state committee member of the BJP.
Simultaneously, the BJP’s state leadership in West Bengal announced plans to challenge a ruling by the single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh of the Calcutta High Court, which denied the state BJP's request to protest outside the state secretariat Nabanna in Kolkata, adjacent to Howrah district, against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s purported efforts to obstruct the ED’s simultaneous raids on I-PAC.
According to Shankar Ghosh, the Chief Whip of the BJP’s legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly, staging a protest on this matter in front of the state secretariat is a democratic right of his party, as the main opposition party in the state.
“We will approach a division bench of the Calcutta High Court regarding this matter at the earliest,” Ghosh stated.