Leader of Opposition in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday sought the transfer of investigation into the alleged vandalism and destruction of railway property by agitators protesting the amended Waqf law to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
In a letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the BJP MLA said that vandalism took place at various railway stations in Murshidabad district on Friday. “I humbly request that the investigation into these acts of vandalism be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA),” Adhikari wrote to the Railways minister, adding that given the sensitive nature of the violent protests and because Murshidabad district borders Bangladesh, NIA is perfectly suited to hold the investigation into such violence.
“Such a step would help uncover the true faces of the masterminds conspiring from behind the scenes, identify the perpetrators and future occurrences,” Adhikari wrote.
Train services were disrupted in the New Farakka-Azimganj section of Eastern Railway on Friday owing to obstruction and vandalism by people between Dhuliandanga-Nimtita stations.
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi on Saturday slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for stating her government would not implement the Waqf (Amendment) Act, saying she has no respect for the Constitution drafted by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. “If Banerjee is refusing to implement the Waqf Act in West Bengal, then it is clear that she has no respect for the Constitution made by Ambedkar.” Trivedi told reporters in Indore.
She is running her government with the help of “extremist and criminal elements” and had become their hostage, he alleged. That is why she is helpless and is making such anti-constitutional statements, the BJP leader said.
Alleging that a particular community was being targeted by the protesters, BJP West Bengal state president Sukanta Majumdar claimed that internet and other communication systems have been suspended in the affected areas, thus leaving the sufferers of violence without any mode of communicating their plight. “We suspect that a major fundamentalist terrorist group may be instigating this from behind the scenes,” Majumdar, also Union Minister of State for Education, wrote in his X handle.
Taking a dig at TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh asked why he was not speaking out about Murshidabad violence.
(with PTI)