Kolkata, Oct 28 (IANS): Now, it is almost certain that Trinamool Congress leadership will not initiate any disciplinary action against West Bengal forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick as they did in case of party secretary general Partha Chatterjee by stripping him of all his ministerial and party portfolios within a week of his arrest by the ED in July last year in connection with the multi-crore cash-for school job case.
Mallick, who is also the former state food & supplies minister from 2011 to 2021, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) early on Friday in the multi-crore ration distribution case in West Bengal during his tenure as the minister of the same department.
According to the Trinamool Congress spokesman Kunal Ghosh, no disciplinary action can be initiated against anyone because of an arrest which was prompted by a vendetta-driven political agenda.
"There is a grave conspiracy behind the last arrest masterminded by a turncoat who shifted to the ruling party at the center. How can the party take any action over such politically- motivated and vendetta-driven arrest?" Ghosh said.
To recall, within a week after the arrest of Chatterjee by ED sleuths in July last year, Trinamool Congress's national general secretary and the party Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee at a press conference announced the decision to strip Chatterjee of all his ministerial and party portfolios till the time the latter comes clean of all the charges.
There are some similarities in the matters of arrests of Chatterjee and Mallick. Both were arrested on charges of irregularities in the state government departments, whose portfolios they were not holding anymore at the time of their arrests.
Although Chatterjee was arrested in July last year for his role as the-then state education minister in the school job irregularities case, at the time of his arrest he was the state commerce & industries minister.
Similarly, Mallick was no longer holding the portfolio of state food & supplies department at the time of his arrest. Both Chatterjee and Mallick were arrested by ED officials .