West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who was in Malda for an administrative review meeting, today made some claims which her political opponents termed “bizarre”. Addressing the administrative review meeting which was telecast live on television, she referred to the death of Mritunjay Barman in Kaliaganj. Barman was a 33-year-old Rajbonshi youth whose relatives have accused the State police of shooting him. The Chief Minister asked: “Who shot him? I have heard that the BSF controls the village and tortures the people. Is it a fact?”
“I have heard that the BSF is coming into the villages and torturing villages because their zone of operations has been increased to 50 km of the international border. Many people have died. Is the BSF supervising this village? I am saying that there should be an inquiry on this,” she added.
District Magistrate Aravind responded by saying that the village was near the border.
Addressing a public meeting in Malda, Mamata questioned the genuineness of recovery of Rs 50 crores of rupees from the house of a close associate of former Trinamool heavyweight Partha Chatterjee in the cash-for-jobs scam in which 15 people, mostly from the Trinamool, are behind bars. “Who has examined the notes? In Hindi films, wads of notes are made from plain paper with just two notes on two sides,” she said. BJP leader Dilip Ghosh swatted away Mamata’s claims. It is obvious that the Trinamool has no support left in north Bengal, he said, adding that it was indeed “unfortunate” that the Chief Minister was indulging in lies.
CPIM Sujan Chakraborty said: “Is the Chief Minister admitting that the State police has completely failed and that the BSF is controlling the village? Then remove the police station. Since the incident is already being probed, she has no business commenting on it. She should utter words that are commensurate with her status as the
Chief Minister.”
