india

Updated: Nov 23, 2014 10:49 IST

At a Trinamool Congress party workers meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Saturday, party chief Mamata Banerjee claimed that Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose’s arrest is the price her party paid for her attempts to build a secular front.

The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Srinjoy Bose because the Bharatiya Janata Party was angered by Mamata’s participation in the Congress’ Nehru’s 125 anniversary celebrations in Delhi, she said at the meeting. “I went to attend the Nehru anniversary programme, does that give them the opportunity to arrest Srinjoy?

If the call is to build a secular/federal front, I shall go a thousand times,” said Mamata.

“Don’t use the prison to scare me. Please prepare your jails,” she said. Launching a no-holes-barred attack on BJP, Mamata dared the Centre to invoke article 356 and throw out her government. “Jayalalitha may remain silent. But I am not afraid. If they can, let them impose article 356 (and throw out my government.) Sonia Gandhi may be afraid to speak out. Don’t show red eyes to me,” she said.

Lashing out at PM Narendra Modi, she said, “How can he, who has faced a number of murder charges, point fingers at us?”

Criticising the CBI, she said “The CBI should be disbanded after the Supreme Court verdict against it. A new organisation should be put in its place,” she said. The CM claimed that the money Bose took was on account of Saradha advertisements in his Bengali daily Pratidin. “Why won’t others be arrested for the same reason?” asked Mamata.

Incidentally, the CBI arrested Bose on Friday as he could not explain why he took `60 lakh a month from Sudipta Sen.

“They (BJP) think that by arresting MPs they will pass all the bills in Rajya Sabha,” she said, adding “ The first arrest in connection with this case was done by us and then you (BJP and CBI) came to know about it”.

Soon after her statement went public, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said, “Mamata Banerjee may indulge in delirium, but she should not involve Jawaharlal Nehru in all these. Congress leaders pointed out, during her Delhi visit, she was at the Nehru anniversary programme for about an hour, but went on to meet three BJP leaders including LK Advani, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh.

A Kolkata court on Saturday rejected the interim bail plea of Srinjoy Bose and remanded him to four days police custody.

The CBI had prayed for seven days’ police custody. Bose told the court that he was a patient suffering from high blood pressure and back pain and he was unable to lie on the floor of police lock-up.