Bandyopadhyay to attend UNGA as part of parliamentary team

A CBI court has allowed Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay to attend the UN General Assembly as part of a parliamentary delegation on October 26, party leader Derek O'Brien said today.
Bandyopadhyay, who is an accused in the Narada scam, is presently out on bail in the case. His passport had earlier been confiscated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
O'Brien said a Trinamool Congress delegation had earlier met Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar over its representatives not being included in the delegation despite the party having a significant number of seats in Parliament.
"We have 47 members in Parliament and no one from our party was included in the delegation this year. It was certainly not fair and we had gone and met the minister regarding this.

"Later, the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) had called us and we had given the name of Sudip Bandyopadhyay as our representative, as our party leadership had decided," O'Brien told reporters here.
However, Bandyopadhyay's passport was in the CBI custody. Though Bandhopadhyay was out on bail, he had to approach the Orissa High Court to get the document released.

Even after the high court gave the order to the CBI to release his passport, the permission for leaving the country could be granted by the investigating agency only, he said.
Bandyopadhyay then appealed before the special CBI court along with the MEA letter of authorisation to be permitted to go abroad.

Though allowed to be part of the parliamentary delegation, Bandyopadhyay has been instructed by the CBI court to return his passport by November 8.