Mamata's minister says attack on ED officers explosion of public grievance

Kolkata: A minister in Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal government, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay on Tuesday courted controversy with his comments that the recent attack on ED officers during a raid in North 24 Parganas was a result of “explosion of public grievance”.

Chattopadhyay, the state’s agriculture minister, also claimed that such attacks will take place in other parts of the country, too, where probe agencies conduct raids.

“We have seen the explosion of public grievance at one place in the state… Such incidents will happen at other places in India as well in future,” he said at a programme.

Three ED officers were injured and several of their vehicles vandalised, as hundreds of supporters of TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh attacked them on January 5, when the team went to conduct a raid at his house in Sandeshkhali in connection with alleged irregularities in the state's ration system.

Chattopadhyay also claimed that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has unearthed scams worth several crores of rupees in the present BJP-led regime at the Centre, “but the party sends probe agencies to only non-BJP states”. Rubbishing the minister’s allegations, BJP MP Dilip Ghosh said the TMC government must be immediately uprooted from power to save the people of West Bengal.

Another local BJP leader called for Chattopadhyay’s arrest for his remarks against central agencies.

Left Front leader Sujon Chakraborty said that Chattopadhyay was trying to score political points with such statements.