Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay was interrogated by CBI officials in Bhubaneswar since early hours on Wednesday.
Mr. Bandopadhyay was flown into the capital of Odisha around 2 a.m. on Wednesday and is expected to be produced in a Bhubaneswar court later in the day. The CBI may ask for five days’ custody, sources in Odisha police told The Hindu .
Dozens of Trinamool activists assembled before the CBI office in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday morning to protest the arrest of two of their MPs over the last week. Trinamool MLA of Purba [East] Medinipur district in West Bengal, Akhil Giri reached the CBI office in Bhubaneswar and was awaiting his turn to meet Mr. Bandopadhyay.
Mr. Giri told journalists that the arrests were a “political move” of the BJP to weaken the TMC.
Two of the the TMC’s Bengal-based leaders filed complaints with the local police against the BJP. One of them, Nayana Bandopadhyay, an MLA and wife of Mr. Bandopadhyay, filed a written complaint in the Bidhan Nagar [North] police station in Salt Lake. She said in her complaint that she is worried about her husband’s “health, safety and security” in CBI custody.
In a separate complaint in another police station in Kolkata suburban area, former Health Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya expressed similar concerns.
On the other hand, in a press conference convened on Wednesday morning, BJP senior leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said the BJP had “no role” to play in the CBI investigation
“I wonder why our office was attacked when the Trinamool Congress should vent their anger on the CPI(M) and the Congress who approached the Supreme Court demanding a CBI investigation in the scam,” he said
“We urge the TMC leadership to shun violence, we condemn attack on our party office. If we tread on the same path like Trinamool, can their MPs enter Delhi and do rallies in other States,” said Mr. Vijayvargiya
Meanwhile, BJP members told The Hindu that their party office was attacked in Bardhaman district by Trinamool cadres.
TMC cadres have blocked roads, taken out rallies and disrupted traffic movement in Kolkata and nearly in all districts of the State.
