New Delhi: TMC leader Derek O’Brien alleged on Monday that the ED searches at premises linked to the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Nadimul Haque, including his residence-cum-party office in Delhi, were an attempt to divert attention from a building-collapse incident in the national capital, in which students were killed.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided seven premises in Kolkata, Delhi and Ranchi on Monday as part of a money-laundering probe against an Urdu daily promoted by Haque, officials said.
Haque (56) is a director of Akhbar-E-Mashriq Private Limited, which publishes Urdu daily “Akhbar-E-Mashriq”. The ED case, registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from an FIR lodged by the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, according to the officials.
O’Brien alleged that the searches are being used to shift public attention from the building collapse.
“What BJP is trying to do is create a diversion from the death of students in Delhi caused by their ‘faltu’ (useless) engine sarkar,” the joint secretary and Rajya Sabha leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said in a statement.
“To change the focus, they raided multiple places of Nadimul Haque and our party office in Delhi, which is Nadimul Haque’s residence and we have been using it for 15 years,” he said.
The TMC leader said Haque was in Ranchi, attending a meeting of the Parliament’s Government Assurances Committee, when the ED searches were taking place.
“When ED was raiding, Nadimul Haque was in Ranchi for Govt Assurances Committee. He raised this at the meeting. ED people were busy raiding his residences and fed stories to media that ‘he can’t be found’,” O’Brien said.
He alleged that the ED action was politically motivated.
“We all know the accountability of ED but we will keep exposing BJP’s ‘faltu’ engine sarkar,” O’Brien said.
“This is a pure vendetta and attempts are being made to divert attention from students who lost their lives in Delhi building collapse,” he alleged.
O’Brien also accused ED officials of threatening party staff over access to the Delhi office.
“The ED officials also threatened us over the call, stating that if we don’t provide keys to the office, they will break the lock and enter. Our office staff had gone out on some personal work. The raid is underway for the last eight hours,” he said.
“We are not going to release a statement and fall into the BJP-ED trap of diversion with the use of the establishment ‘Godi’ media,” O’Brien said.
Calling the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government “desperate”, he questioned its handling of student protests.
“This is a sign of a desperate government. The government can’t deal with students, how will it deal with opposition parties?” he asked.
The Rajya Sabha leader of the Mamata Banerjee-led party also alleged that Haque has been targeted because of his religious identity.
“Because Nadimul Haque is a Muslim, he has been targeted intentionally. In Bengal, BJP is doing the same. We will write about this to the presiding officer,” he said.
He further alleged that the ED action was aimed at curbing the voice of the media.
“This is also a systematic targeting of media. Nadimul runs eastern India’s biggest Urdu newspaper and this is an attempt by BJP and their agencies to curtail media voices,” O’Brien alleged.