KOLKATA: At least four Trinamool Congress candidates for the Assembly elections scheduled for April 23 and 29 have been questioned or have received summons for questioning by various federal probe agencies.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Debasish Kumar, the Trinamool Congress candidate from the high-profile Rashbehari Assembly seat in south Kolkata, on Friday, the second since Monday, in connection with some alleged land deals in the city, said an official from the federal agency, who requested anonymity.
Separately, TMC ministers and rival candidates, Sujit Bose from Bidhannagar seat and Ratin Ghosh from Madhyamgram, were summoned on April 6 and 8 respectively in connection with alleged corruption in appointments by several civic bodies of the district, ED officials said.
In 2023, the Calcutta High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate allegations that various civic bodies had recruited 1,500 people between 2014 and 2018 in exchange for money.
While the two ministers, who were questioned earlier, did not comment on the new summons, Kumar said his party would address the issue.
“I said on Monday that I will not utter a single word. The party will comment,” Kumar, who is contesting against BJP’s Swapan Dasgupta, told the media after being questioned for five hours.
In the elections, which will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, Kumar, Bose and Ghosh will face off against each other on the second date.
A fourth TMC candidate, Manab Kumar Borwa from Bhagabanpur seat of East Midnapore district, who goes to the polls in the first phase, received summons on Wednesday in connection with the 2022 bomb blast case, hours before he filed his nomination papers. As directed, he was confronted by NIA officers on Thursday.
“They said I will be summoned again. I will cooperate,” said Burwa, who is named in the case’s 2024 supplemental indictment. The Calcutta High Court has ordered an NIA probe into the blast that claimed the lives of three TMC workers in 2023.
Prime Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee responded to the summons while addressing an election rally in North Dinajpur district on Friday afternoon.
“The elections are near and agencies have started summoning TMC candidates one by one. What have you been doing all these years? Have you been sleeping? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” Banerjee said.
In Kolkata, Kunal Ghosh, TMC state general secretary, said: “Using federal agencies for electoral leverage is part of the BJP’s old tactics.”
BJP Bengal spokesperson Debjit Sarkar denied allegations that the summonses were related to the elections.
“We cannot say that summoning a person in connection with an ongoing investigation is a violation of the Constitution. The ruling party should ask these questions to the judges who ordered the investigations,” Sarkar said.
