Livid over the arrest of TMC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using CBI, ED and Income Tax department against those who raised voice against demonetisation and dared him to arrest her and all TMC MPs. She asserted that their protest against note ban would continue.
“I just can’t think that Sudip Bandopadhyay, who is our party’s leader in the Lok Sabha will be arrested. I also have information that Modi wants to arrest many other TMC leaders like Abhishek Banerjee, Sovan Chatterjee (city mayor) and Firhad Hakim (minister),” she told reporters immediately after Sudip’s arrest by the CBI in connection with the alleged Rose Valley chit fund scam.
“I am shocked, but not scared. Let him arrest all of us. I openly challenge him to arrest me. Let me see his guts.
He may silence others, but not me. He can’t suppress our voice. He can’t bulldoze people’s voice,” she said. “We will fight legal battle in every case,” she added.
Earlier, at a meeting in Medinipur she charged Modi with using CBI, ED and IT against persons who protested against demonetisation.
The TMC supremo also convened an emergency meeting on Sudip’s arrest to chalk out the party’s action plan. TMC would launch dharnas to protest against Sudip’s arrest from tomorrow, she said, adding “politics cannot be done by resorting to vendetta”.
She alleged that Bandopadhyay was arrested due to “pressure from the PMO” and asked “why should Narendra Modi and Amit Shah not be arrested?”
“The party is behind Sudip. He has not done anything wrong. Even if he is in jail, the people of Bengal will keep him in their heart,” she said.
