NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs Asit Kumar Mal and Dola Sen met arrested party leader Anubrata Mandal inside Tihar jail on Friday – the first such meeting with any senior TMC leader since he was shifted to Delhi from West Bengal in a corruption case.
Mandal, a TMC heavyweight, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the multi-crore cattle smuggling case which pertains to illegal exports of bovines to neighbouring Bangladesh through the porous border.
Mandal’s daughter Sukanya, who is also lodged in the women’s section of the jail, accompanied the two lawmaker to the jailed TMC leader.
Speaking to The New Indian after the meeting, Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen accused the Centre-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of political vendetta.
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“Every opposition party is well aware of what is going on. Ministers and MPs from opposition parties are being jailed, put in custody, and kept under the surveillance of the ED and the CBI,” she said.
She further stated, “There is absolutely no reason for bringing Anubrata Mandal here from Bengal. He is not fluent in Hindi. In Bengal, someone could have met him at least once a week, but that is not happening here.”
During the meeting, Mandal expressed concerns about the safety and well-being of his daughter Sukanya inside the prison.
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“What is even more distressing is that his daughter is not a political person and has never been associated with our party, yet she is also being subjected to political vendetta. The TMC has complete faith in the law and the judiciary. We will do everything within the bounds of the law. However, what is happening with Sukanya is absolutely unfortunate,” Sen added.
Leaders of the TMC have largely maintained a distance from Mandal since his arrest. This is the first such high-profile meeting.
Another TMC heavyweight, Partha Chatterjee is also behind the bar since January 23 this year following huge cash recovery from the residence of his alleged girlfriend Arpita Mukherjee in Kolkata during raids into the teacher recruitment scam.
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