Denied entry to SG’s house: TMC leader

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Kunal Ghosh on Tuesday claimed that he tried to enter the residence of Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, in New Delhi but was denied entry without an appointment, to find gaps in a statement issued by the senior lawyer last week on his meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Nandigram in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Kunal Ghosh on Tuesday claimed that he tried to enter the residence of Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, in New Delhi but was denied entry without an appointment, to find gaps in a statement issued by the senior lawyer last week on his meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Nandigram in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari.

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Adhikari is an accused in the 2016 Narada sting operation case that the Central Bureau of Investigation has been investigating. Mehta, the Union government’s second highest law officer, is representing the CBI in the case in the Calcutta high court and Supreme Court.

“The security guards did not allow me to enter and told me that without an appointment, I cannot enter (SG’s house). This is the norm. So, how can Adhikari enter the residence with his armed guards when he is an accused in a CBI case? This means he had a prior appointment. This proves that he was trying to influence the case,” Ghosh told reporters.

While both Mehta and Adhikari have denied meeting each other at the SG’s residence in Delhi on July 1, TMC national general secretary and nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, demanded that the SG reveal CCTV footage to substantiate his claim.

Mehta last week had said in a statement that Adhikari had come to his residence-cum-office, in Delhi at 3 pm on July 1 but left without any meeting as he was preoccupied.

The TMC has already sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the removal of the SG for alleged misconduct and impropriety. On Monday, a two-member delegation of TMC parliamentarians met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum in this regard.

Calling it a tactic to divert attention from real issues, Bharatiya Janata Party state chief Jay Prakash Majumdar said: “The TMC is trying to divert the attention of the people from major issues. The SG knows his job and his jurisdictions. Ghosh has said that Adhikari has been named by the prime accused in the Saradha chit fund case and needs to be interrogated. When Ghosh was arrested a few years ago, he had named Mamata Banerjee in the case. That also needs to be probed,” he said.

The SG was not available for a comment.