File Photo of suspended TMC MP and Saradha Scam accused Kunal Ghosh. (Press Trust of India photo)
Kolkata:
Suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh today claimed before a city court that the police was trying to gag him if he wanted to talk to the media outside the court and alleged that state Transport Minister Madan Mitra was being allowed to do so without any impediment.
"What the police is doing with me downstairs while being taken to the prison van from court lock up is not acceptable," Ghosh, who is an accused in the multi-crore Saradha scam, told the court of Santanu Ganguly, Metropolitan Magistrate at Bankshall Court here.
"Neither am I a criminal, nor a convict. When I am taken out from court, if someone wants to know something, the way the police push me is not acceptable," he said.
"But when the minister (Mitra) talks to the media, the police does not stop him," Ghosh, who fell out with the TMC leadership after taking names of a section of party leaders in connection with the scam, claimed.
He claimed that Mitra, who was arrested by CBI on Friday, was being allowed by the police to talk to the media while being taken from the police station to the CBI office at Salt Lake in the morning for interrogation.
Alleging that farce was being done in the name of trial, Ghosh asked "How can I get justice if the state machinery is vengeful?"
The judge then asked the police not to use physical force on Ghosh and told him not to stop while walking into the prison van from the court lock-up gate.
Ghosh was produced before the court for appearance in connection with a case of non-payment of salaries to employees while he was CEO of Saradha Media, an arm of the Saradha Group.
The judge directed that the next appearance date in the case would be March 2.