Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar seeks report from govt over ‘police raid’ at Suvendu office

“In view of worrisome inputs from Leader of Opposition West Bengal Legislative Assembly @SuvenduWB that his MLA office of Nandigram has been attacked by police, sought an urgent report [from] Chief Secretary,” he tweeted.

“CS @chief_west to render status report by 10 pm today indicating full details of heavy police and rapid action force posse & senior officials @WBPolice present in & outside MLA office of LOP @SuvenduWB. Such an action in the MLA office of LOP is a matter of deep concern,” he added.

Taking to Twitter, Adhkari claimed that the police entered his office by force. “Without giving any prior information, without showing a search warrant, and without the presence of a magistrate, the ‘Mamata’ police (West Bengal Police) forcefully entered my Nandigram MLA’s office unnecessarily. This is a lousy and cruel act on the part of the Mamata Banerjee government. It is a conspiracy against the Leader of the Opposition,” he wrote, attaching three videos to substantiate the claim.

However, police said the raid was conducted after receiving information on corruption allegations against Mohua Pal, wife of Meghnad Pal who is the Purba Medinipur district general secretary of the BJP. There are allegations that she was promoted to the managerial post from a Group D staff in a cooperative bank by forging documents.

After the police could not find Mohua Pal at her residence, the police went to Adhikari’s office.

“It is my residence and office. This has been done intentionally by the police… to malign my image. But they will not be able to do anything against me,” said Adhikari.

Reacting to the development, local TMC leader Sheikh Sufiyan said, “If there are some concrete allegations against BJP leaders and their family members then there is no way the police won’t take any action. Law will take its own course. Maybe there was some information regarding the accused person being present at the MLA office and that’s why the police went there.”

TMC MLA Tapas Roy criticised the Governor for commenting on the action taken by the state police. “He has no right to comment on police action based on videos shared by the Leader of the Opposition. He should let the law take its own course,” said Roy.

Sub-divisinal Police Officer (SDPO) of Haldia, Rahul Pande, said an FIR was registered against the wife of BJP leader Meghnad Pal and the police went to the MLA office as part of its investigation. “No one was harassed during the raid. There was no attempt to ransack the office. These are baseless allegations,” said Pande.