A day after the arrest of seven persons, including a BJP candidate in the last West Bengal Assembly polls, with stacks of new banknotes, Union minister Babul Supriyo today said that two of the seven arrested are "mafia dons" who have links with the state's ruling Trinamool Congress while terming his party functionary as a "small fry".
He rued the fact that he, along with other BJP leaders, wasted so much time campaigning for a person who has been caught doing things he "should not have", and said that he was not "disowning" the BJP member and asserted law will take its own course.
"I rue the fact that I waste so much of time. So many BJP leaders wasted so much of time campaigning for a person who seems to have been derailed from life and has been caught in doing things he should not do. And, therefore, law will take its own course," he said.
Seven persons were arrested in the eastern part of Kolkata for their alleged involvement in smuggling coal. According to reports, stacks of new currency notes were also recovered from them.
Mastermind Raju Jha (46), Lokesh Singh (35), Manish Sharma (44), Krishna Murari Kayel (44), Sayan Majumdar (29), Partha Chatterjee (41) and Subham Bhowmik (28) were arrested by the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police.
"...Manish Sharma and his photos with Babul Supriyo, it's all over in the public domain. Seven people who are arrested, there are two people in that who are the real don. This guy (Sharma) is a small fish. Krishnakanth, he is mafia don who was part of Mamata Banerjee's official delegation to Singapore in 2014.
"There are documents about that. The biggest mafia don who was arrested among the seven is Raju Jha...Everyone is aware about how many crores was given (to the ruling party) by Raju as an understanding for illegal coal business in Asansol. I am waiting to see whether police, apart from Manish Sharma, are going to come up with details pertaining to these two gentlemen which points to the ruling party," he said.
Asserting that he was "not disowning" the arrested BJP leader, Supriyo said, "I am saying, if any person, who had dinner with me last night and if he is caught with some illegal activity today morning, I am going to say yes, you are a friend of mine but you have done something for which the law will take its own course."
Supriyo said that no one can point out that either him or any of his party leaders had given ticket to this particular person for exchange of money.
"I am not disowning him. I am rather saying that I aggressively campaigned for him like I did for all other candidates in West Bengal. I did about 70-80 rallies.
"Obviously there are going to be hundreds of videos in which not only me but several other leaders are going to be seen because he was the candidate. We all campaigned for him," he said.
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