Protesting Trinamool Congress leaders 'forcefully' detained by cops outside Election Commission’s office in Delhi

New Delhi, April 8

TMC leaders were detained by the Delhi Police on Monday while they were holding a dharna outside the Election Commission’s office, demanding that the chiefs of CBI, NIA, ED and Income Tax Department be changed.

A 10-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had announced the dharna after meeting a full-bench of the Election Commission (EC).

The delegation urged the Commission to ensure a level-playing field in the Lok Sabha polls and stop the “misuse” of the Central agencies against Opposition parties and leaders, TMC Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose, who was among the leaders who met the poll panel, said.

The Mamata Banerjee-led party has been alleging that the Central probe agencies—the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Income Tax (I-T) Department—have been targeting Opposition parties at the behest of the BJP-led Centre.

“We asked the EC to intervene in the name of parliamentary democracy to preserve sanctity of elections. Stop ED, CBI, NIA, I-T Department from acting against opposition. They’re working like the 12th man of the BJP,” Ghose said during the dharna as members of her party displayed posters reading “NIA DG, ED, CBI directors change now”.

TMC MPs Derek O’Brien, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale and Ghose, MLA Vivek Gupta, former MPs Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen and Abir Ranjan Biswas, and party’s students’ wing West Bengal vice-president Sudip Raha were detained.                     

The EC’s spokesperson said the Commission has no comments to offer on the dharna by the TMC

They were detained and taken to a police station as Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure—that prohibits large gatherings—is imposed in the area and no permission was taken for the protest, a police officer said.

“We were picked up forcefully by the police, some of us fell down. Ms Dola Sen has a leg injury, she was pushed around,” Ghose said in a video released by the TMC.

In another video shared by the party, Gokhale said police has not informed them of where they are being taken.

In a letter to the EC, the TMC alleged that BJP leader Jitendra Tiwari met NIA Superintendent of Police DR Singh on March 26 allegedly with a “packet”, and left the flat empty handed after around an hour long meeting.

“The sequence of events are ample evidence of the unholy nexus and agreement between the BJP and the NIA to harass AITC’s workers so as to ensure that they are diverted from performing their electioneering duties,” the TMC said in its letter to the EC. 

The party has alleged that during this meeting, the BJP leader handed over a list of TMC leaders and workers to be targeted.

On Sunday, the TMC alleged on Sunday an “unholy alliance” between the NIA and the BJP ahead of elections, prompting the central investigating agency to deny any mala fide intention and label the entire controversy as “unfortunate”.

A team of the NIA was allegedly attacked by a mob on Saturday when it went to arrest two main suspects in a 2022 blast case in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district, sparking a political slugfest with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the investigators of assaulting the villagers. PTI