“The central government’s vendetta politics is condemnable. No one is spared and I have seen three deaths before my eyes because of it,” said Banerjee
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in an anger today, while paying tribute to the actor and Trinamool Congress leader Tapas Pal, blamed his death on the central government. She alleged that she had seen “three deaths” because of the central government’s “vendetta politics”.
61-year-old died by cardiac arrest in Mumbai yesterday. He faced probe over his alleged links to the chit fund scam in which many leaders of Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress have been accused.
“The central government’s vendetta politics is condemnable. No one is spared and I have seen three deaths before my eyes because of it,” said Banerjee.
Expressing pain for the actor-politician’s death, Banerjee said that “The law must take its own course but this humiliation day after day, whisper campaigns…these are finishing off people. I can’t even bear to look at Tapas”.
Banerjee spoke about three deaths that she alleged were “untimely” and driven by harassment by central agencies. Apart from Tapas Pal, she named Trinamool MP Sultan Ahmed and another leader, Prasun Banerjee’s wife.
A former union minister Sultan Ahmed investigated in the Narada sting scandal involving bribe-taking caught on camera, died of a cardiac arrest in 2017.
“I am forced to say such things, even if I am told this is politics. Pal’s death has proved how agencies can destroy a person mentally. He was devastated and was tortured. Pal probably never realized his crime and was the number one film star. He was jailed for a year,” she said.
Many leaders of the Trinamool Congress, including ministers and MPs, have been probed or jailed in what are called “Saradha and Narada”.
The Saradha scam was a prominent financial fraud in which lakhs of small investors were cheated into depositing money with the promise of abnormally high returns. In 2014, Matthew Samuel, the CEO of Narada News, posed as a businessman and filmed TMC leaders and officials allegedly taking money.
The BJP took a jibe on Mamata Banerjee over the corruption allegations against her party men.
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