The raids by Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police on Wednesday at different locations in and around Kolkata and East Midnapore against close associates of Suvendu Adhikari kicked up a political storm and attracted the attention of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The raids, which began early morning, went on till afternoon.
Governor Dhankhar tweeted, “Worrisome disruption of chain of command by blue eyed subordinates of Kolkata police and West Bengal police. It is outrageous politicisation of administration.” He tagged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the tweet and said such moves are “extralegal” and is “alarming” for democracy and rule of law.
Raj Bhavan refused to issue a formal statement, but an officer, on condition of anonymity, said, “The raids were conducted against the wishes of the Kolkata Police commissioner.”
The state government recently changed the Kolkata Police commissioner, installing a respected officer, Soumen Mitra. This is Mitra's second stint as the city's commissioner of police. In 2016, he was appointed to the post by the Election Commission. He is known to be an extremely outright and honest person. Mitra, a 1988 Bengal cadre officer, mostly served the Kolkata Police under different capacity during left front rule. Dhankhar's claim that the raids were carried out against Mitra's wishes raised several eyebrows.
Kolkata Police did not issue any statement regarding the raids.
The BJP accused the Banerjee government of targetting Adhikari family after Suvendu and his brother, Soumendu joined the BJP. Two other members of the family, Sisir and his eldest son, Dibyendu are yet to join the BJP.
While Sisir remained tightlipped about joining the saffron fold, Dibyendu ruled out such a move. “I can tell you I am with TMC and would remain so,” he had said.
The allegation of lower ranking officers conducting raids without of the knowledge of police commissioner is unprecedented in the history of Kolkata Police.
A retired officer of the state police department said, “Mitra can never be vindictive towards opposition parties. His intervention has always been apolitical and he is hard nut to crack.”
While most of his batch members have been promoted to director general of police rank, Mitra has not yet been promoted as he does not prefer to earn recognition from his “political bosses”.
Biswapriya Roychowdhury, a state vice president of BJP, said, “They (ruling party) will do it till the imposition model code of conduct. All will be vanished after MCC is imposed. We will then pile up all these and move to Election Commission.”
