Iterating that it did not "trust" the CBI, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress Saturday accused the Congress of "manipulating" the central probe agency to protect itself from corruption cases and said the large number of pending cases have raised a question over the agency's "credibility".
In a joint statement, Trinamool national spokespersons Derek O'Brien and Amit Mitra countered their Congress counterpart Abhishek Manu Singhvi's charge that the Mamata Banerjee regime was "hiding facts" and shielding its leaders involved in the mult-crore rupee Saradha chit fund scandal besides attempting to "deflect" the focus.
Questioning the state government's "vehement opposition" to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, Singhvi alleged the regime was "desperately trying to protect" tainted Trinamool members and leaders.
The Trinamool leaders denied the allegations.
"Like the police in Hindi films, who arrive after the operative part of the script is over, the Congress has suddenly woken up to the Saradha scandal, a chit fund swindle in which leading lights of the CPI-M and Congress itself are involved," O'Brien and Mitra said.
While Singhvi accused Banerjee of shedding "crocodile tears" for the poor in the state, the Trinamool said: "This is rich, coming from a party that is shedding crocodile tears over corruption on the eve of voting."
"Frankly, we don't trust the CBI. For close to 70 years, it has been the Congress Bureau of Investigation.
"In the past 10 years, it has been manipulated by the ruling party to protect itself and its cronies in the 2G scandal, the coal scandal and a host of other corruption cases - ranging from civil aviation and Air-India to S-band spectrum and Devas," the statement said.
Claiming that the CBI has failed to deliver results in various cases like the Netai and Nandigram "killings", as also the Gyaneshwari Express sabotage, the Trinamool leaders asked whether the Congress "even remember such episodes?"
"In our experience, the CBI delays and obfuscates; its political masters seldom allow it to bring an investigation to fruition. We are determined not to let this happen to the victims of Saradha."
In 2011, the number of pending cases with the CBI was 2,300, with 458 of them in Bengal alone, they noted.
"The numbers must have gone up in the last three years. So many pending cases only implies that the credibility of CBI is at stake. Why are so many cases pending?"
They said while the state government arrested the scam kingpin Sudipto Sen and appointed a judicial commission that has already compensated four lakh investors, the legislation sent by the Mamata Banerjee regime to the central government on the chit fund issue was still pending.
