The political slanging match between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has intensified with the former leaving no stone unturned in a bid to destabilise the new Bengal government.
India's top anti-corruption probe agency – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) – on Wednesday named West Bengal state chief Mamata Banerjee as being culpable in the 2016 Narada bribery case for staging a demonstration at her office in the state capital Kolkata.
In a major development, the CBI, which is controlled by the federal government, has appealed to Calcutta High Court to transfer the Narada bribery case from West Bengal, as it accuses state chief Mamata Banerjee of creating terror to help those who have been arrested because of the case. On 19 May, Banerjee – who has just been elected state chief for the third time – said that the CBI would have to arrest her too after two Bengal Ministers and two legislators were arrested. She remained inside the CBI's Kolkata office for at least six hours protesting against their arrest.
The development comes after two Bengali ministers, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukharkjee, state legislator Madan Mitra and former legislator Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI on Monday. They were granted bail by a lower Court, which was denied by the High Court.
Representing the CBI, Solicitor-General of India Tushar Mehta on Monday evening told the division…
