Kolkata: Superintendent of Bolpur Sub-Divisional Hospital Dr Buddhadeb Murmu, charged with sending a subordinate doctor to Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal's residence a day before his arrest by CBI on Thursday, has now pointed fingers at an influential ruling party MLA from Birbhum district. On Saturday morning, Murmu claimed that he had to send his subordinate doctor in the hospital Dr Chandranath Adhikari to Mondal's residence following a direction from Trinamool Congress legislator from Suri Assembly constituency in Birbhum district, Bikash Roy Chowdhury. An extremely close confidant of the Mondal, Roy Chowdhury is also the president of Trinamool Congress-controlled Birbhum Zilla Parishad. "I received a call on my mobile from Roy Chowdhury on Wednesday when he told me that since Mondal is sick I should send a doctor to his residence. Mondal is a VIP in the district who is even entitled to 'Z' category security from the state government. So, I asked Chandranath Adhikari, who was not on duty then to pay a visit to Mondal's residence," Murmu told newspersons. He came forward with a bizarre explanation on being asked as to why he instructed Chandranath Adhikari, to issue medical advice for 14-day bed rest for Mondal on a white paper. "I just asked Adhikari not to use the official letterhead for using any prescription since he was acting on a verbal order. But I never directed him on any medical advice. He gave the advice according to what he felt as a doctor," Murmu said. However, when contacted, Roy Chowdhury denied having directed Dr Murmu to send a subordinate doctor to Mondal's residence. "I received a call from Mondal's residence that he has certainly fallen sick and is suffering from his fistula pain. I just called up Dr Murmu and informed him about the crisis. But I did not direct him anything," Roy Chowdhury said. Opposition leaders have claimed that Adhikari, Murmu, and Roy Chowdhury are just lower rungs in the chain of instructions and actual instruction came from the state health department headquarters at Swasthya Bhawan at Salt Lake on the northern outskirts of Kolkata. CBI has already recorded the statement of Adhikari on the sequence of events on the day he went to Mondal's residence and issued the bed rest medical advice in plain paper. Sources said that central agency sleuths will also question Murmu and record his statements as well.
—IANS

Superintendent of Bolpur Sub-Divisional Hospital Dr Buddhadeb Murmu, charged with sending a subordinate doctor to Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal's residence a day before his arrest by CBI on Thursday, has now pointed fingers at an influential ruling party MLA from Birbhum district.

Asked by ruling party MLA to send doctor to Mondal's house: Bolpur hospital superintendent

Superintendent of Bolpur Sub-Divisional Hospital Dr Buddhadeb Murmu, charged with sending a subordinate doctor to Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal's residence a day before his arrest by CBI on Thursday, has now pointed fingers at an influential ruling party MLA from Birbhum district.


West Bengal

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested Trinamool Congress leader and party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal from his Bolpur residence in connection with the cattle smuggling scam. 
The CBI officials reached Mandal’s Bolpur residence at around 9.50 a.m. escorted by a huge contingent of central armed forces personnel. After a little over an hour of questioning, they arrested him. The arrest was made after the Trinamool Congress strongman ducked the central agency summons for ten consecutive times. 
This morning, the CBI officials first served him a notice under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that allows any investigating officer to arrest a person without an order from magistrate and without a warrant if that person has been concerned in any cognizable offence or against whom there is credible information.
According to CBI sources, Mandal did not cooperate with the investigating officials during the brief interaction over little more than an hour in the morning. Finally, the officials arrested him.
He is being taken to a local camp of CBI for further questioning and in probability he will be presented at a lower court in the state a little later.
While being brought out of his Bolpur residence, Mandal did not interact with the media. An apparently devastated Mandal, sporting a yellow kurta, came out escorted by the CBI and central armed forces and silently got into the vehicle of the investigating agency. Certain documents were also seized from his residence at the time of his arrest.
It is learnt that after the Trinamool Congress’s Birbhum district president ignored ten consecutive summons, the central agency’s top brass decided not to wait anymore and instead reach his door steps on Thursday morning only.
“The decision to reach his doorsteps was taken on Wednesday evening only, after we became definite how desperate Mandal is to avoid the summons for which he even got a bed-rest advice by pressuring a doctor of the Bolpur Sub-divisional Hospital. We even spoke to the doctor concerned who said that he was forced to give the bed-rest advice on plain paper both from his higher authorities as well as Mandal. So, before he could adopt any further method to duck interrogation, we decided to reach his doorsteps,” a CBI official said.
—IANS

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested Trinamool Congress leader and party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal from his Bolpur residence in connection with the cattle smuggling scam. 

 Bengal cattle smuggling case: Anubrata Mandal arrested by CBI

Kolkata: Superintendent of Bolpur Sub-divisional Hospital Dr Buddhadeb Murmu, whose advice for bed-rest came handy for Anubrata Mandal in ducking Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons, has now come under the scanner of the central agency.
The focus shifted on him after Dr Chandranath Adhikari, the physician who gave the bed-rest prescription in plain paper, alleged that he was forced by Murmu to issue the advice.
On Tuesday morning, soon after the CBI officials reached Mandal's residence at Bolpur in Birbhum district to handover the summons for appearance at CBI's Kolkata office on Wednesday by 11 a.m, a team of doctors from Bolpur Sub-divisional Hospital also reached there. After initial check-up, the medical team came out after submitting a medical advice for 14 days of bed-rest for Mandal on a plain paper.
As the news went viral, the authorities of Bolpur Sub-divisional Hospital came under severe criticism especially in view of the fact that a seven-member medical team of state-run SSKM Medical College &amp; Hospital had, just a day ago, refused admission to Mandal saying his medical complications were not so critical and could be treated by medicines.
From Tuesday night onwards, Dr Chandranath Adhikari, who issued the medical advice on a plain paper started speaking to mediapersons and claimed that he was forced to issue the medical advice by superintendent of Bolpur Sub-divisional Hospital Dr Buddhadeb Murmu.
"I was on leave on Tuesday. But Dr Murmu called me up and asked me to visit Mandal's residence for a medical check-up. I insisted that Mandal should come to the hospital for it, but Dr Murmu asserted that I should go. At his residence, Mandal asked me to issue a medical advice for 14 days of bed rest. I called up Dr Murmu again and told him that since I was on leave, I was not carrying my official letterhead. Then Dr Murmu insisted that I write the medical advice for 14 days of bed rest on a plain paper. I thought it wise to follow his advice then since I will have to stay in Bolpur. But now I am feeling bad since somewhere in the process my image as a physician got tarnished," Adhikari said.
Murmu, on his part, said that he was asked by the Birbhum district administration to send the medical team to Mandal's residence. "Even though I am on leave,  I had to send the medical team following the instructions of the district administration," he said.
CBI officials have questioned how a doctor, who is holding the position of a state-run hospital superintendent can direct a junior doctor to issue medical advice on a plain paper. The central agency officials are considering questioning Murmu in the matter.&nbsp;
—IANS

Superintendent of Bolpur Sub-divisional Hospital Dr Buddhadeb Murmu, whose advice for bed-rest came handy for Anubrata Mandal in ducking Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons, has now come under the scanner of the central agency.

 Bolpur hospital superintendent under CBI scanner on bed-rest advice to Anubrata Mandal

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mandal on Wednesday once again skipped CBI summons in connection with cattle smuggling case in West Bengal. This is the tenth time that Mandal has evaded the probe agency's call on health grounds.&nbsp;
Mandal, the party's Birbhum district president, was supposed to be present at the CBI's Nizam Palace office in central Kolkata on Wednesday at 11 a.m. However, at around 10 a.m., two counsels of Mandal arrived at Nizam Palace and handed over a communique on his inability to appear on medical grounds. As a supporting document, they handed over medical advice from Bolpur Sub-Divisional Hospital prescribing bed-rest for him. He had appeared at the CBI office for interrogation just once in May this year and since then he had been avoiding the consecutive central agency summons. All eyes are now on what would be CBI's next action on this count and senior officials of the agency under the leadership of the agency's additional director Ajay Bhatnagar, who is currently in Kolkata, are currently discussing the next course of action.&nbsp;
According to senior counsel of the Calcutta High Court Kaushik Gupta, the CBI currently has three options. "The first is to move the court and get an order for Mandal's arrest, the second is to question him at Bolpur residence and the third and final option is issuing a fresh summons with a fresh date." Meanwhile, opposition parties have again started raising the question on why the CBI is giving a long rope to Mandal. "Now it is clear that the Mandal has just used medical prescriptions, first from SSKM and then from Bolpur Sub-Divisional Hospital, as shields against facing CBI interrogation. I do not understand what the CBI is waiting for. It should act tough now and drag Mandal to its office," said CPI(M) central committee member and the former leader of Left Parties in West Bengal Assembly, Sujan Chakraborty.&nbsp;
BJP's state president in West Bengal and party MP, Sukanta Majumdar said that if Mandal thinks that he will be able to avoid the central agency questioning for an indefinite period by using medical prescriptions, he is mistaken. "He should rather hurry up. Patha Chatterjee is waiting for him at the Presidency Central Correctional Home," ridiculed Majumdar.
Trinamool Congress's state vice president Jaiprakash Majumdar gave an extremely cautious statement on the matter. "Now it is the matter between CBI and Mandal and the party has nothing to do in this connection," he said.&nbsp;
—IANS

Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mandal on Wednesday once again skipped CBI summons in connection with cattle smuggling case in West Bengal. This is the tenth time that Mandal has evaded the probe agency's call on health grounds. 

 Cattle smuggling case: Anubrata Mandal ducks CBI summons again, tenth refusal so far

Kolkata:&nbsp;As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced a reshuffle of her cabinet by inducting nine new faces in the backdrop of the multi-crore WBSSC recruitment scam, many people opined that this reshuffle was an attempt by the chief minister to project a "clean cabinet" image.The attempt was visible in two particular decisions in the reshuffle. The first was the inclusion of party veteran Pradip Majumdar as the panchayat affairs and rural development minister, which was applauded by political observers. Majumdar, who had been the principal agriculture adviser to the state government since the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, was considered a good choice for the post considering his vast experience and an extremely clean image as there had been frequent charges of corruption in running the panchayat affairs.The second right choice was giving agriculture minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay the additional charge of the parliamentary affairs department, which was earlier held by Partha Chatterjee, tainted in the WBSSC scam. A perfect example of the Bengali bhadralok (gentleman), an image which the late former CM Jyoti Basu and Mamata Banerjee's predecessor, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya are still associated with, Chattopadhyay has a clean record in almost four decades of his political career, be it during his earlier association with the Congress or his present stint with the Trinamool Congress. In fact, he was the first Trinamool Congress representative in the West Bengal assembly way back in 1998.However, observers feel that all these "clean cabinet" projections have been slightly marred by the inclusion of three turncoat MLAs -- singer turned politician and two-time BJP Lok Sabha member, Babul Supriyo and two former All India Forward Bloc legislators, Udayan Guha and Tajmul Hossain. Supriyo and Guha were given the information technology, electronics, tourism department, and the north Bengal development department respectively.A comment by Guha after being made a minister on Wednesday afternoon has added spice to the controversy of turncoat politics. "It is a great day for me. My father was a minister in the Left Front regime and now I am a minister in the current Trinamool Congress regime," said Guha, son of late Kamal Guha, the heavyweight All India Forward Bloc minister of agriculture, agriculture marketing and public health engineering in the Left Front regime in West Bengal."His comment is an honest confession that maintaining the family legacy of ministership was his sole goal. Remember, Udayan Guha was the one who made a false allegation on the floor of the assembly that Border Security Force personnel sexually harass women in the bordering villages in the name of frisking. So, it is clear how effective such a politician will be in the state cabinet," said BJP spokesman in West Bengal, Samik Bhattacharya.Similar is the case of two-time All India Forward Bloc MLA from Harischandrapur assembly constituency in Malda district from 2006 to 2016. "From 2011 to 2016, Tajmul was one of the Left Front MLAs against whom the current government slapped a number of criminal charges. However, all those cases were withdrawn after he joined Trinamool Congress before the 2016 West Bengal assembly elections. And now he is a minister. My question is if those criminal cases slapped against him were valid then, then how is he a clean person now that he can be even considered for a ministerial chair. Actually, BJP at the national level and Trinamool Congress at the state level are adopting the same money and pressure tactics to rope in leaders from other parties," said CPI(M) central committee member, Robin Deb.The same logic can be applicable in the case of Babul Supriyo, feels veteran state Congress leader and former three-time party legislator, Manoj Chakraborty. "After the Asansol riots, Supriyo, as the then BJP Lok Sabha member from Asansol, was accused of fuelling tension in the area and aggravating the riots. During his term with the BJP, Supriyo was the most vocal critic of the state government. In my opinion, the chief minister has a fondness to be surrounded by celebrities like filmstars and singers. Supriyo, with his singing talent, can serve that purpose. That is probably his only qualification to get a ministerial berth," Chakraborty said.According to political analyst Arundhati Mukherjee, the trend of changing political camps has become so blatant in West Bengal since the last 10 to 12 years, that it is extremely difficult to really weed out all turncoats from the ministerial ambit."Let me give you two examples. In the previous Left Front regime, the post of the land and land reforms minister was considered the second most powerful cabinet rank after the chief minister. The chair had been occupied by Marxists like Hare Krishna Konar and Benoy Choudhury. In fact, after coming to power in West Bengal in 2011, Mamata Banerjee herself retained that department considering its importance in state politics. Probably, no one could have imagined that the last land and land reforms minister of the Left Front regime, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, after occupying that chair for a long time, would join the Trinamool Congress before the 2016 assembly elections and remain satisfied with the insignificant portfolio of food processing minister," Mukherjee said.Next, she cited the example of the current Union civil aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia. "The four-time Congress MP and son of Congress leader, late Madhavrao Scindia joining the BJP was yet another shocker for many. For any political party or individual politician today, what matters is power equations and the question of ideological loyalty does not arise. So, there is nothing to be surprised at turncoats being offered ministerial berths. But surely such inclusions will raise questions about the 'clean cabinet' image of the chief minister," she said.—IANS

As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced a reshuffle of her cabinet by inducting nine new faces in the backdrop of the multi-crore WBSSC recruitment scam, many people opined that this reshuffle was an attempt by the chief minister to project a "clean cabinet" image.