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Bengal governor seeks records of assembly proceedings against new BSF law, probe agencies
On Wednesday, the assembly passed a motion against two senior officers of the CBI and ED, accusing them of breaching the privilege of the House by not seeking the speaker’s consent before filing a charge-sheet and arresting three TMC legislators in the Narada sting operation case in May.
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has written a letter to assembly speaker Biman Banerjee, seeking details of the breach of privilege motion moved on Wednesday against two senior officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the resolution passed on Tuesday against the Centre’s decision to extend the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) from 15 to 50 km of the international border in the state.
“Attention of the Honourable Speaker be drawn also to the fact that on earlier occasions too proceedings were sought but unfortunately the same are not being made available,” Dhankhar wrote to Banerjee on Thursday and tweeted a copy of the letter on Friday. He gave the speaker a week to act.
The speaker told the media that he will respond in accordance with parliamentary rules.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) secretary general and minister of parliamentary affairs Partha Chatterjee, however, saw this as interference in the assembly’s affairs by Raj Bhawan.
“This is not the first time that efforts have been made to interfere in the functioning of the state assembly,” said Chatterjee.
On Wednesday, the assembly passed a motion against two senior officers of the CBI and ED, accusing them of breaching the privilege of the House by not seeking the speaker’s consent before filing a charge-sheet and arresting three TMC legislators in the Narada sting operation case in May.
The privilege motion, moved by Tapas Roy, TMC’s deputy chief whip in the assembly, was passed by the House and forwarded to the committee of privileges for further proceedings.
The officers - CBI deputy superintendent of police Satyendra Singh and ED assistant director Rathin Biswas - were summoned by Biman Banerjee in September but the central agencies moved the Calcutta high court seeking relief from appearance before the speaker. The ED sent a letter to the speaker saying it did not need his sanction. The CBI wrote to him that sanction for prosecution against the TMC legislators was given by the governor.
The CBI filed a charge-sheet against ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and legislator Madan Mitra in the 2014 Narada case and arrested them along with former TMC legislator Sovon Chatterjee on May 17. The ED submitted the charge-sheet against them on September 1.
Mukheree, the most senior among the accused, died in Kolkata on November 4.
