Kolkata: West Bengal's ruling Trinamul Congress on Sunday targeted a senior officer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), posted in the city, over the central agency's raid in which two party men were arrested in a case of crude bomb blast at Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore in 2022.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh alleged that Dhan Ram Singh, who is the superintendent of police at the NIA Kolkata branch office, had taken bribe in cash from BJP leader Jitendra Tiwari to frame the party men in the case after the Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha Election got underway.
Mr Ghosh also showed Mr Tiwari's purported signature in the visitors' register at the housing complex in New Town where Mr Singh stays at a flat and threatened to release the CCTV footage of Mr Tiwari's entry there, to hand over the cash in a packet to Mr Singh, in the next 48 hours.
He further demanded a probe and immediate removal of Mr Singh as SP(NIA). Contesting the charges, leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari ruled out Mr Tiwari's visit to Mr Singh saying that the signature was not of the BJP leader. He also dared the TMC to release the video of a meeting between Mr Tiwari and Mr Singh.
The NIA also landed in a spot after the wife of one of the two accused, arrested in the case, lodged a complaint against the central agency officials with the police of molestation based on which an FIR has been filed at Bhupatinagar police station.
The NIA however categorically denied “any mala fide in its recent actions” and “refuted the allegations of unlawful actions levelled against it and dismissed the entire controversy as unfortunate.” It also made clear that its “actions were bona fide, lawful and legally mandated.”
