Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar writes to Mamata on Suvendu's fears of vendetta

KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urging the state administration to take urgent measures on the apprehensions expressed by former minister Suvendu Adhikari, that he may be implicated "in false criminal cases out of political motivation and vendetta."

The Governor said politically inspired implication of opponents in criminal cases is unconstitutional and also crime.

"Such apprehensions, from one time associate call for correctional therapy.... Allegations of such implications need to be in sharp focus, micro-managed to dispel any perception to the contrary," he said.

In the letter to the Chief Minister, Dhankhar said: "Please take urgent note and all expected measures on the representation to me from former minister Suvendu Adhikari..."

Earlier on Wednesday, Adhikari sought intervention of the West Bengal Governor so that the police and the administration apparatus in the state is dissuaded in implicating him and his associates in criminal cases out of political motivation and vendetta.

"I am constrained to seek your intervention as the Constitutional head so that the police and the administration apparatus in the state is dissuaded in implicating me and my associates in criminal cases out of political motivation and vendetta," Adhikari wrote to Dhankhar in a letter.

The Governor had also shared the letter on social media and said he would take expected steps. The former Nandigram lawmaker said in the letter that he has been in public life for the last 25 years with the prime focus being the service of the people.

"Dictated by the sense of duty and public welfare I quit the ministry... unleashing police repression by implication in criminal cases on political considerations is certainly an alarming indicator of governance away from rule of law. Such sinister moves are antithetical to the Constitution...Political bonhomie with the ruling party or dispensation cannot be an essential requisite for enjoying liberty and human rights, as is the situation presently," the rebel Trinamool legislator said in his letter to the Governor.

Adhikari formally resigned from the primary membership of the Trinamool Congress on Thursday. He also stepped down from the state legislative assembly Wednesday evening.

According to insiders, Adhikari is likely to join the BJP during Union Home Minister Amit Shah's proposed visit to Bengal this week (December 19-20). Sources said Adhikari may also travel to Delhi seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi before December 19. (IANS)

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