Officials Will Die If They Question Sheikh Shahjahan: Congress's Adhir Chowdhury

Amid reports that the main accused in the Sandeshkhali case, Sheikh Shahjahan, is not cooperating with the Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID), state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the CID officers will lose their lives if they question the Trinamool strongman.

"The Trinamool has enslaved the CID. How can the CID question Shahjahan? Does a master answer to the slave? Shahjahan is their master. If they question him they will lose their lives. Do they want to risk their jobs?" Mr Chowdhury said today.

Hitting out at the ruling Trinamool Congress government in the state, the senior Congress leader said that Shahjahan has been arrested so that he can rest for a few days until the election.

"They (CID) will treat him with mutton, pulao, and biriyani. Has he gone there to answer them? He has gone there to rest. Didi (Mamata Banerjee) has asked him to rest. Once elections come, he can get back to action," Mr Chowdhury claimed.

He even alleged that Shahjahan will operate from jail for some time and control the coercive electoral strategies from there.

"He can operate everything from jail now - whether it is Sandeshkhali, Diamond Harbour, places from where Khoka babu (Abhishek Banerjee) will contest the election. The jail will now turn into his operating center. It will be his election command office," Mr Chowdhury said.

Advocating for rapid deployment of central armed forces in the state to keep the Trinamool Congress hooligans in check, Mr Chowdhury said he will visit the Election Commission on March 4 to keep his request.

"The force should come here fast. They will put the hooligans of Trinamool in check. I am not speaking against all the workers of Trinamool but those who have turned the party into an oppressive one. We have asked for central armed forces to assist people in this fight against them. I have gone to the Election Commission in this regard and will go again on March 4," the senior Congress leader said.

Mr Chowdhury warned that the ruling Trinamool Congress will try to influence the central armed forces personnel by all means.

"They have no dearth of money. They will try to influence Trinamool members who are in the forces. This is because they still have control of the police," he said.

Speaking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bengal visits, Mr Chowdhury said, "The Prime Minister is coming on election tourism. His list of campaigns here will increase day by day. With the changing time, he will change his speech, promises... He has many qualities."

The Bengal Congress chief also warned of talks about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) resurfacing before the Lok Sabha elections to flare up communal tensions in the state for political benefits.

"There will be a rise in communal forces in Bengal again. Talks of CAA and NRC will come up again. After the Bengal Assembly polls, these talks were in slumber. Now since winter is gone, these talks will come up in the market again," he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)