Jalpaiguri child trafficking case: CID summons Kailash Vijayvargiya, Roopa Ganguly, two others

In May, the CID filed its first chargesheet in a Jalpaiguri court against seven people, including suspended BJP youth leader Juhi Chowdhury, in connection with the child trafficking racket it had busted in February. Chowdhury, who was the general secretary of BJP’s Jalpaiguri Mahila Morcha, had been accused of helping the traffickers using her “political influence”. Her father, Rabindra Narayan Chowdhury, was a BJP state committee leader and a party district unit chief. Both were removed by BJP after their name cropped up in the case.

Chandana Chakraborty, who was chairperson of the NGO Bimala Sishu Griho, Sonali Mondal, its chief adoption officer, Chakraborty’s aide Manas Bhowmick, former District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) of Darjeeling Mrinal Ghosh, his wife and DCPO Jalpaiguri Sasmita Ghosh and Darjeeling Child Welfare Committee member Debasish Chanda were among the seven chargesheeted.

The names of Vijayvargiya and Ganguly had come up during investigation. Chandana had alleged that Chowdhury had fixed her meeting with the two to put pressure on Central Adoption Resource Authority to issue licence for her shelter home.

On Thursday, Vijayvargiya told PTI: “If they are serious about it, they should hand over the probe to CBI. But they are not serious about the probe… They only want to pursue vendetta politics, as Trinamool leaders have been summoned in Narada and other chit fund scam, they want to harass us. But the truth will come out and people will not forgive TMC.”

When contacted, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said on Thursday: “The Trinamool government is lodging false cases against BJP leaders to tarnish their image. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee keeps talking about political vendetta… the recent development shows who is indulging in actual political vendetta. The CM feels she can get rid of Narada and Sarada by framing false cases against BJP leaders, but this won’t happen. Central agencies will work as per law and anyone who is guilty won’t be spared.”

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh too alleged that the summons to Vijayavargiya and Ganguly was a conspiracy hatched by the Trinamool to tarnish BJP’s image. “Though the prime accused has already admitted that she never met Ganguly and Vijayavargiya, the CID still issued the summon to them. This is absolutely unnecessary. It is because TMC has failed to stop the BJP in the state, they are using CID. This is nothing but harassment of our leaders,” Ghosh told PTI.