A visit by the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari to the residence of the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta created a political storm on Friday, with Trinamool Congress MPs writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking the removal of Mr. Mehta.
The Solicitor General, however, clarified that though Mr Adhikari had visited his house ‘unannounced’ on Thursday, he declined to meet the BJP leader.
“Shri Suvendu Adhikari did come to my residence cum office yesterday at around 3:00 p.m., unannounced. Since I was already in a pre-scheduled meeting in my chamber, my staff requested him to sit in the waiting room of my office building and offered him a cup of tea. When my meeting was over and thereafter my PPS [principal private secretary] informed me about his arrival, I requested my PPS to convey Mr Adhikari my inability to meet him and apologise as he had to wait,” Mr. Mehta said in a statement, adding,“The question of my meeting with Mr Adhikari therefore did not arise”.
Mr Adhikari, too, echoed the same explanation but Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee demanded that Mr. Mehta should share CCTV footage from his residence to prove that the meeting did not take place.
“Mr Mehta’s efforts to dismiss speculations regarding his clandestine meeting with @SuvenduWB can only be valuable if he makes all CCTV footage public until Mr. Adhikari was in his residence. Moreover, was Mr. Adhikari present in the SG's residence without prior appointment ?” asked Mr. Banerjee on Twitter.
Noting that the Mr Adhikari stayed at the Solilicitor General's residence for nearly 30 minutes, Mr Banerjee added, “Does that imply that a meeting was indeed due? As the episode gets murkier, one can only hope that the truth shall surface”.
Taking strong objection to Mr Adhikari’s visit to Mr Mehta’s residence, three Trinamool Congress MPs — Derek O’Brien, Mahua Moitra and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy — wrote a letter to the Prime Minister demanding the removal of the Solicitor General since the BJP leader is an accused in the Narada and Saradha scam.
“The Solilicitor General of India is the second highest law officer of the country after the Attorney General of India and advises Government of India and its various organs and in crucial legal matters such as Narada and Sarada cases. Such meeting between an accused in grave offences, with the learned Solicitor General who is advising such investigation agencies by whom the said accused is being investigated, is in direct conflict of interest with the statutory duties of learned Solilicitor General of India,” the letter said.
