Kolkata: The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari Tuesday said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claims in her affidavit in the Supreme Court on the Enforcement Directorate’s petition regarding her ‘interference’ during a search operation at the office and residence of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) co-founder Pratik Jain in Kolkata are contradictory to the statements she made January 8, the day of the raid.
“The Chief Minister had been constantly giving untrue statements on this issue. But now she had got trapped in the tangle of her own contradictory statements. In the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, she has claimed that she took away some files from the two places after taking permission from the ED officials. But on the day of the raid and search, she claimed in front of the camera that she had collected everything and did not allow the ED officials to take away anything. That was her self-declaration on that day, which totally contradicts the claims in her affidavit,” the LoP told media persons Tuesday afternoon.
He also said that the Chief Minister was constantly contradicting her own statements out of fear of getting herself behind bars. After studying the claims in her affidavit and what she said on camera January 8, even a child would understand how he is contradicting herself,” Adhikari said.
The Supreme Court Tuesday adjourned to February 10 the hearing in the matter.
A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Vipul M. Pancholi deferred the matter after Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, sought time to file a response to the counter affidavit filed by the West Bengal government earlier in the day.
Mehta informed the Apex Court that the state government’s response was received only Tuesday, and the Central agency required time to examine it and place its rejoinder on record.
Acceding to the request, the Justice Mishra-led Bench posted the matter for further hearing February 10.