Bhubaneswar: A day after the arrest of Trinamool Congress (TMC) Parliamentary Party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the Rs 17,000-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam, party activists today staged protest in front of the CBI office here just before the arrested MP was taken to court.
Party workers led by TMC MLA from Ramnagar Akhil Giri have also announced to organise a mega rally on January 10 in protest against the arrest of Sudip and another MP Tapas Paul arrested three days earlier in the same case.
The party alleged that arrest of the MPs in the case is a conspiracy of BJP-led Central government to wipe out the TMC in West Bengal. “BJP has hatched a vain plan to eliminate our party after Mamata Banerjee took out nationwide movement against demonetisation. We are going to organise a mega rally in Bhubaneswar on January 10 protesting CBI action. The allegations against our MPs are completely baseless”, Giri said.
BJP had received a huge set back in the general election in West Bengal. That is only reason of BJP being vindictive, Giri added.
Also read: Rose Valley scam: Tapas Paul’s daughter appears before CBI for 2nd time
The lawyer of the arrested parliamentarian, meanwhile, said that he will soon file a petition in the court for bail. "Definitely, we will pray court bail as he has some health related issues. We will produce the documents regarding this and hope the court will consider our plea", advocate Rajiv Majumdar said.
He further added that CBI has to prove the allegation that Sudip has taken some amount from the ponzi firm. He is a mere accused and all allegations against him are baseless. Sudip has been arrested with a politically vindictive approach, Majumdar told reporters.
Trinamool workers had also laid siege to the state BJP headquarters in central Kolkata soon after the arrest TMC strong man. Senior party leaders staged a dharna in front of the CBI's Salt Lake office from where Bandyopadhyay was flown to Bhubaneswar yesterday.
The MP himself had called his arrest a "reward for good performance in Parliament". Bandyopadhyay , a four-time MP and former Union minister, is the fifth and most high-profile Trinamool leader to be arrested in Ponzi scam related cases so far. On Friday, another party MP and actor, Tapas Paul, was arrested in the same case.