Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and MP representing Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency finds himself amidst another massive controversy, this comes just weeks before the nation goes in to vote to form the 17th Loksabha increasing problems for his aunt, Mamata Banerjee. Abhishek Banerjee is considered to be second-in-command of the AITC after his aunt Mamata Banerjee.
Abhishek Banerjee has been named in the complaint filed by the customs department of the Kolkata airport in the case of seizure of 2 Kgs of gold. The events took place in the intervening night of March 15-16, 2019, when Customs officials stopped two ladies coming in from Thailand for customs check over suspicion arising from them declining to show their passports to the customs officials. Refusing to cooperate with the officials after multiple requests, the lady ‘Started abusing the officers and threatened them with dire consequences’ mentioned the complaint filed by the customs department.
Soon, Kolkata police officials arrived at the scene to escort the lady from the situation however customs officials stood their ground and followed the procedures. After multiple attempts through various channels, customs officials were pressurized into release the said women. The complaint mentions the conduct of Kolkata police in the whole scenario ‘they were interfering with the discharge of duty by the customs officials and pressurizing them to release the passengers. In the meantime it was ultimately found the two ladies carrying the gold were carrying Thai Passports. After the ladies had left, several more police officers made rounds of the customs location and enquired about officers on duty during the fiasco. This comes after there was a huge controversy over the standoff between the CBI and the Kolkata Police where they Kolkata police had detained CBI officials investigating a multi-hundred Crore chit fund scam in Kolkata. Many politicians raised questions over the exploitation of Kolkata police by the state government to safeguard their personal interests and called in for investigations in the matter.
“Now it is requested that a ‘first Information report’ (FIR) may be registered against the aforesaid two passengers in the gold seizure case, the police personnel and other unknown person, who abused and resorted to criminal intimidation and voluntarily/intentionally obstructed the officers of Customs to exercise their power as conferred under the Customs Acts” read the complaint filed by the customs department.
Abhishek Banerjee is not new to controversies. In 2015 while addressing a rally in West Bengal he actively instigated use of violence. He had said “In the heart of Delhi, in Parliament and through various protests, Mamata Banerjee and the TMC have proved that if the interests of the people of Bengal are hurt, we will not leave the matter. As long as Mamata is there if anyone dares to glare at us, we will gouge their eyes out and throw them on the road, if they raise their hands, we’ll cut their arms off.” As Bengal faces its worst Law and order conditions, authoritarian conduct of the ruling party leaders is surely not doing good to the situation. With Mamata Banerjee struggling to save political ground from the BJP, this gold seizure controversy is set to further damage Mamata’s political plans.
