Counter PIL filed over `disproportionate assets' of Bengal oppn leaders

Kolkata, Aug 18 (IANS) Just ten days after a division bench of the Calcutta High Court directed Enforcement Directorate (ED) to be a party in a PIL regarding the assets and property details of 19 heavyweight Trinamool Congress leaders, including seven current ministers in West Bengal, a counter-PIL was filed at the same bench on Thursday on similar disproportionate assets of seven leaders of the three main opposition parties in West Bengal namely the BJP, CPI-M and the Congress.

The names of the 17 mentioned in the PIL filed on Thursday also include two sitting Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members namely Sishir Adhikari and Dibyendu Adhikari, who are respectively the father and the younger brother of the leader of the opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who had also been named in the PIL.

Lok Sabha members of the BJP -- Dilip Ghosh, Locket Chatterjee, Saumitra Khan, and party legislators Mihir Goswami, Monoj Kumar Oraon and Agnimitra Paul have been named in the PIL.

The other BJP leaders named in PIL include party spokesman Samik Bhattachartya, Anupam Hajra, Shilvadra Dutta, Jitendra Tiwari and Rahul Sinha.

Those from CPI-M named in the PIL include the party's state secretary in West Bengal and politburo member, Md Salim and former party legislator, Tanmay Bhattacharya.

Senior Congress leader and former Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Abdul Mannan has also been named in the PIL.

Bhattacharya said the PIL has been filed deliberately by a Trinamool Congress-confidant lawyer of the Calcutta High Court to counter the old PIL filed that named Trinamool Congress leaders and ministers.

CPI-M central committee member, Sujan Chakraborty said "it was evident that this is a PIL that has been filed as a counter to the earlier PIL filed against ruling party leaders".

"Let the law take its own course. But our leaders will not appeal to the court for any special relief which three current ministers of the state government have done," he said.

His clear hint was towards an appeal by three ministers of the state government namely state urban development & municipal affairs minister and Kolkata Mayor, Firhad Hakim, state forest minister, Jyotipriyo Mullick and the state cooperation department minister, Firhad Arup Roy to the same division bench to review the order on inclusion of ED as a party to the PIL.