By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-07-28 14:10:15
Senior TMC
leader and minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, Partha Chatterjee, who has
been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the agency said he was
giving evasive replies during questioning in the SSC recruitment scam in West
Bengal, was today removed from the cabinet and all his portfolios will be temporarily
looked after by the chief minister. Additionally, the party suspended him with
immediate effect but left the door open by saying that he could rejoin if his guilt is not proved.
With
unaccountable cash (the count till now is nearly 50cr), gold (in several
kilograms) and more than 10 benami property papers being seized from several
locations linked to Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee (who has
also been arrested), the chorus for his removal was growing within the party.
The party also must have got the feedback from the ground that people were
talking derisively about this affair. Hence, despite being defiant for the last
couple of days, the party acted decisively to remove Chatterjee from all posts
and suspend him from the party. It said that there is zero tolerance for
corruption in TMC.
But the TMC
has asked the investigating agencies to complete the investigation in a
time-bound manner and punish the guilty. It raised the point that such
investigations are never closed and instead, used as a harassment tool. In the
SSC recruitment scam, with unaccounted wealth tumbling out and many other
things which can be used as evidence reportedly being collected from several
locations, the investigating agencies should establish the money trail, link it
to the accused and fast track the trial to bring the culprits to book. It will
also help in proving that central agencies are not always misused.