Officials of the newly formed West Bengal Commission on Institutional Corruption on Thursday inspected two factories owned by former cabinet minister and rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Firhad Hakim in Kolkata, triggering a political row.
“We came here to conduct an inquiry based on a complaint,” one of the commission officials told the media outside the plastic goods factories in Kolkata’s New Alipore area, refusing to share details.
Hakim, once one of TMC founder Mamata Banerjee’s closest aides but who joined the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel camp in June, said the inspection’s real intention was character assassination.
“This is character assassination. I set up the factory in 1985 when I was unemployed. I took a loan from a bank. I expanded the factory in phases over the years. The land belongs to someone else; I have taken it on rent,” Hakim, the MLA from the Kolkata Port assembly seat, told the media.
People living around the factory, however, claimed that the original unit was a small unit and the major expansion took place two years ago when Hakim was state urban development and municipal affairs minister and also Kolkata’s mayor.
Hakim did not comment on this allegation but claimed the land was not disputed.
{{/usCountry}}Hakim did not comment on this allegation but claimed the land was not disputed.
{{/usCountry}}“The inspection was held because someone lodged a complaint. The complaint letter was shown to me. I pay rent for the land to the landlord every month. There is nothing illegitimate in this business. If people are harassed in this manner then nobody will set up businesses,” Hakim said.
TMC Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy from the Mamata Banerjee camp targeted Hakim and the Bharatiya Janata Party government.
“The inspection is an eyewash. We were told that Firhad Hakim was behind all big corruptions in Bengal but there has been no investigation,” Roy said.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari formed the Commission on Institutional Corruption in May, days after the BJP ousted the TMC government.
Retired Calcutta high court judge Biswajit Basu is the chairman of the commission, and senior IPS officer K Jayaraman is the member secretary.