The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned sitting Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator Debasish Kumar, who is contesting from south Kolkata’s high-profile Rashbehari assembly seat, on Friday in connection with a case linked to alleged land deals in the city, an official from the federal agency said, requesting anonymity.
Kumar, who is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Swapan Dasgupta, was questioned by ED on Monday as well. On Friday, he declined to comment.
“I said on Monday that I will not utter a word. The party will comment,” he told reporters after being questioned for five hours.
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ED has also summoned TMC ministers, Sujit Bose, who is contesting from the Bidhannagar seat, and Rathin Ghosh, who has been fielded from Madhyamgram, for questioning on April 6 and 8, respectively, in connection with alleged corruption in appointments by several district civic bodies.
In 2023, the Calcutta High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe allegations that various civic bodies recruited 1,500 people between 2014 and 2018 in exchange for money.
Elections to the three constituencies where Kumar, Bose and Ghosh are contesting, will be held on April 29.
A fourth TMC candidate, Manab Kumar Parua from East Midnapore district’s Bhagabanpur seat, which goes to polls in the first phase, appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday in connection with a 2022 bomb explosion case.
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“They said I will be summoned again. I will cooperate,” said Parua, who was named in the 2024 supplementary chargesheet. The NIA was ordered to probe the explosion, which claimed the lives of three TMC workers, on orders of the Calcutta high court in 2023.
Mamata reacts in anger
Chief minister and TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee reacted to the summons while addressing an election rally in North Dinajpur district on Friday afternoon.
“Elections are around the corner and the agencies have started summoning one TMC candidate after another. What were you doing all these years? Were you sleeping? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” Banerjee said.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said it was part of the BJP’s “old tactics to use federal agencies for electoral leverage.”
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar claimed the summons were not linked to elections. “We cannot say that summoning a person in connection with an ongoing investigation is a violation of the Constitution. The ruling party should ask these questions to the judges who ordered the probes,” he said.
