WB: Huge Left Rally 'Gheraoed' CBI Office Vicinity Demanding Speedy Investigation of Corruption Cases

Kolkata: Left Front Activists held a massive rally before the  CGO complex in Saltlake which houses the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) regional headquarters.    The rally call had been given by the West Bengal Left Front and the rally was led by the Left Front chairman Biman Basu.

However, Police did not give permission for the rally to be held at Saltlake and in the morning took away the materials needed to construct a stage. The Left Leaders then threatened an embargo upon the Bidhan Nagar Commissionerate, following which the police gave permission on the condition that a big stage cannot be constructed.

From 2 pm large processions started arriving from different parts of adjacent places and the rally site was flooded with red flags. The processions raised the slogan “chor dhoro jail bhoro,” (catch the thieves and put them in jail).

It can be recalled that a number of cases in regard to corruption are being probed in the state by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and it is often alleged that both the agencies are showing a lacklustre attitude to the probes. In the SSC scam which is being probed by both CBI and ED, a large amount of money (over 50 crores) has been unearthed by the ED, however, the probe into the SSC scam has supposedly stopped. In the case of the Coal scam and cow smuggling where TMC leaders like MP Abhishek  Banerjee and TMC minister Moloy Ghatak, TMC strongman Anubrata Mandal are accused, the rate of progress in these probes is allegedly slow. 

A number of TMC leaders are accused of the Sarada and the Narada scam. The progress of these cases is grossly unsatisfactory and all the 12 TMC and BJP leaders including the present leader of the opposition Shubhendu Adhikary- the prime accused, are still roaming scot-free.

Addressing the rally,  Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim said that the Left is determined to get to the bottom of corruption cases plaguing the state. He said that despite the attempt of the police to prevent the rally from taking place, thousands of  Left Front activists with their red flags have come here.

"It is a fact that it is due to the legal and the on-road fight of the Leftists, that the  CBI and ED with court interventions are being forced to probe the cases of corruption of BJP and TMC leaders who are cris-crossing their position too often to escape the probe," he said.

He also threatened that if even after unearthing such mountains of cash, if the CBI and ED are unable to prosecute the offenders, then the common people won't let the offices of both these organisations operate from Bengal. 

Addressing the rally, Left Front’s Chairman Biman Basu  said that mountains of scams are being reported each day in the state but the CBI and ED are inefficient in completing probes into these scams.

“The reason behind this is that the Rashtriya Sawamsevak Sangh (RSS) do not want the guilty to be punished. It is they who had given birth to Hindu Mahasabha, Janasangha and BJP.  In the same manner, they have given birth to TMC in the state of West Bengal to finish the leftists. Hence the fight against  BJP and TMC is a single fight,” he said.

Addressing the rally CPI(M) Politbureau member Suryakanta Mishra said that the leaders of both TMC and BJP are busily interchanging their places nowadays.  the Trinamool chieftain was attributed as Maa Durga by the RSS and in return, the RSS   had been attributed as patriots by the West Bengal Chief Minister. “Even now she is saying that RSS  is not bad. Hence there should not be any difference between these two forces and a singular fight against them should be carried out,” he said.

The rally was also addressed by Communist Party of India  (CPI) State Secretary Swapan Banerjee, forward block leader Dolly Roy, and RSP leader Ashok Ghosh.