Trinamool's Anubrata threatens to get party leaders arrested

Kolkata: Controversial Trinamool Congress leader and its Birbhum district strongman Anubrata Mondal has created a political stir after publicly threatening to get two party leaders arrested on trumped up charges.

On Sunday, during a party workers' meeting in the Khairasol block, Mondal warned 'corrupt' Trinamool leaders that he would ask the district police superintendent to arrest them in fake currency cases.

After some leaders openly complained during the meeting that a section of party functionaries were making money from government projects and welfare schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and the 100-day work programme, Mondal instructed that police complaints be lodged against them.

"File police complaints against those who have taken money. I will tell the SP to arrest them. Cases of involvement in fake currency note rackets will be registered against them. They will rot in jail for three years," he said in full media glare.

Earlier on Saturday, Mondal had threatened to put a party leader in jail for "having canvassed vote for the BJP" during the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

In front of Mondal, local Trinamool leaders openly accused each other of taking money in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and the 100-day work programme.

At the meering held in Sainthia, Mondal got enraged after a local leader alleged that a party area committee president, Kuber Mondal, had campaigned for the BJP during the polls.

"File FIR against Kuber Mondal," he instructed another party leader.

"It is your to duty to see to it that he is arrested. The FIR should be filed within a day. Lodge the FIR in some other case," he said.

However, till date no FIR has been registered against Kuber Mondal.

"Whatever the allegations are, they are all baseless. One has to furnish proof. Without that such allegations are meaningless," he said.

The BJP, however, accused Mondal of enacting a drama in the presence of media.

"He is enacting a drama before the media as the image of his party has hit rock bottom. He wants to improve his own image," said district BJP President Dilip Ghosh.

"He says he would get corrupt Trinamool workers arrested in fake currency cases. Let him do that instead of talking big. Who is preventing him from getting such leaders arrested," asked Ghosh.

Mondal, who shares a cordial relationship with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been in the news many times for making controversial statements in public, including asking the party activists to "hurl bomb at the police".

During the 2019 general elections, Mondal was kept under strict surveillance on the polling day in Birbhum after he allegedly threatened poll officials to work in favour of his party.

However, he remained largely away from public eye for days after the 2019 poll results were announced. Though Trinamool Congress managed to hold on to the two Lok Sabha seats in Birbhum, the BJP gained ground in a number of Assembly segments.