BJP Office Attacked in Kolkata After TMC Leader’s Arrest, Protests To Continue

Kolkata: The BJP office in Kolkata was attacked this evening, after the arrest of the senior most TMC leader on Tuesday.

MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress Party was arrested by the CBI earlier in the day for his alleged involvement in the Rose Valley Scam that bankrupted lakhs of small investors in Bengal and other states.

Hundreds of TMC party activists shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP and threw stones outside the BJP state headquarters in the city, official sources said. The police quickly cordoned off the area and chased the protestors away.

"Some people threw stones at the BJP office. Later we used force and dispersed the crowd," a Kolkata police official said.

Bandopadhyay, who arrived at the CBI office here at around 11 am, was subjected to more than four hours of intensive interrogation by CBI, after which he was arrested. The TMC MP had been summoned thrice earlier by the investigation agency.

Mamata accuses Modi of persecution

After Bandyopadhyay’s arrest, Ms Banerjee accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying her party is being persecuted for its aggressive campaign against his demonetisation drive. She called for an emergency meeting on Sudip's arrest and said Modi may arrest "all of us" but our protest will 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.

MPS, MLAs converge at the CBI office

Several Trinamool Congress MPs and MLAs reached the CBI office here on Tuesday, hours after the arrest of TMC Parliamentary party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay by the investigation agency in connection with the alleged Rose Valley chit fund scam. However, only the MPs were allowed to go upstairs where the accused was kept after his arrest, TMC sources said.

The MPs included Mukul Roy, Dinesh Trivedi, Derek O'Brien, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Kalyan Banerjee, Saugata Roy, Subrata Bakshi and Dola Sen. The MLAs who accompanied the MPs were Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Jyotipriya Mallick, Sabyasachi Dutta, Sujit Bose, Shashi Panja and a few others.

Earlier, Sudip's wife and MLA Nayna Bandyopadhyay came to the CBI office to meet him.