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TMC alleges link between vaccination scam accused and Raj Bhawan
Adding to the acrimonious ties between Raj Bhawan and the West Bengal government, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday released two photographs wherein a man who allegedly worked as the security guard of Debanjan Deb, the main accused in the fake vaccination racket, is seen standing near governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, his wife and two other women
Adding to the acrimonious ties between Raj Bhawan and the West Bengal government, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday released two photographs wherein a man who allegedly worked as the security guard of Debanjan Deb, the main accused in the fake vaccination racket, is seen standing near governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, his wife and two other women.
“The man in the photograph is Arabinda Baidya, who worked as the security guard of Deb. In one photo, he can be seen standing behind Deb while in the other he is seen standing near the governor and his family,” TMC Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said at a press conference.
Raj Bhawan did not react to the allegations till 4.30 pm.
Deb, an imposter who posed as an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer posted at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) held at least two Covid-19 vaccination camps for the general public in Kolkata. Amikacin, an antibiotic, is suspected to have been used on a few hundred people. Deb also cheated many people of a few crores of rupees. The Centre has sought a report from the state on the fake vaccination camps.
“We want the special investigation team formed by the Kolkata Police to probe this because we have learnt that Baidya’s job was to take expensive gifts and envelopes to important people. It must be found out what he was doing at Raj Bhawan,” said Roy, implying that the photograph was taken at Raj Bhawan.
Reiterating the allegation, chief minister Mamata Banerjee earlier raised regarding Dhankhar’s name appearing in the Jain hawala case probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 1990s, Roy said Dhankhar’s name is mentioned as an accused in the book ‘Bad Money Bad Politics- the untold hawala story’ written by Sanjay Kapoor.
“The book says that in 1991 Jagdeep Dhankhar, a former Janata Dal MP, received ₹12.25 lakh in three or four instalments. We all know that Dhankhar was a Janata Dal MP and served in the VP Singh government as a minister. Since the money transacted through hawala was used by terror groups, this angle should be probed as well as it involves national security,” said Roy.
“The Centre should have probed the man’s background before posting him as governor. We will demand his recall and raise the issue before the President of India and also at the Parliament,” said Roy.
Roy also referred to the death of Surendra Jain, one of the main accused in the Jain hawala case, three days ago. “Is it a coincidence that Jain died after Mamata Banerjee held a press conference and named Dhankhar, and journalist Vineet Narain, who conducted a probe, wrote on Facebook that Dhankhar should resign on moral ground? We are not drawing any inference but there is ground for suspicion,” said Roy.
TMC Lok Sabha member Mohua Moitra has alleged that Dhankhar was involved in the allotment of residential plots that was cancelled by a full bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court. She tweeted, “Man of integrity Governor WB was beneficiary of illegal residential land allotment which later came to be cancelled by a Full Bench of Punjab & Haryana HC. Was this also constitutional, Uncleji?”
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh defended the governor saying, “If the TMC government has any proof against the governor then it should make it public instead of bringing wild allegations against him every other day.”
