Central agency raids amid festivities reflected bad political culture: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Oct 26 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said raids by central agencies at the premises of a Trinamool Congress leader and members of the state cabinet amid the ongoing festive season, were a reflection of extremely bad political culture

The Chief Minister's remarks came after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday morning conducted raids at state forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick's residence as part of its ongoing probe in the multi-crore ration distribution irregularities case.

According to sources, Mallick's Salt Lake residence in Kolkata wa one of the eight places that the central agency had searched.

Banerjee has also threatened to file FIRs against the ED officials if there was a negative effect on the Minister's health of Mallick as "he is suffering from high blood-sugar and is not in the proper health condition".

"So if anything happens to him because of the unnecessary harassment, we will have to file FIRs against the ED officials,” the Chief Minister asserted.

According to Banerjee, the central agencies are targeting opposition leaders, especially those from Trinamool Congress, following the instructions from the BJP.

“My question is why central agencies are not active against the corrupt leaders and ministers of the BJP. People of India will not tolerate such vindictive agenda- based arrangements,” she said.

She further alleged that while conducting the raids, the central agency sleuths also ransack furniture and appliances at the search locations.

Referring to a recent raid at the residence of Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim in connection with the municipalities’ recruitment irregularities case, the Chief Minister said that the teams even search kitchen utensils.