Kolkata, July 4 (IANS) After the names of one MLA and two councillors appeared as accused in the latest supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI in the 2021 West Bengal post-poll violence case, the Trinamool Congress is said to be working on a two-way strategy, legal and political, to counter the development.

The party MLA named in the latest supplementary charge sheet is Paresh Paul, the Trinamool Congress legislator from Beliaghata Assembly constituency in North Kolkata.

The two Trinamool Congress councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) are Swapan Samaddar from ward number 58 and Papiya Ghosh from ward number 30. Samaddar is also a member (mayor-in-council) of KMC.

“Immediately after information surfaced about the inclusion of their names as accused in CBI’s latest supplementary charge sheet, all three of them contacted the party leadership seeking advice on how to go ahead in the matter. On one hand, the legal experts of the party are being consulted on how the matter can be legally countered at a special court in Kolkata, where the matter is being heard. At the same time, strategy is being worked out on how the development can be countered in the ‘political vengeance’ angle”, confirmed a senior member of the state cabinet.

The immediate legal option that is being mulled over is the possibility of filing a petition seeking the exclusion of their names from the list of accused in the charge sheet.

“Our legal brains are evaluating the possibilities on this count, and as soon as the green signal in the matter is available, all three of them will file the exclusion petition at the special court,” the cabinet member said.

“As regards countering the development politically, our question is and will be why the names of Paul, Samaddar, and Ghosh were included in the charge sheet so late and just less than a year before the state Assembly elections. Paul, who is in his post-seventies, is suffering from multiple medical complexities. He is even unable to attend the Assembly session. So this development is nothing but to harass our leaders and send a message of fear before the Assembly polls,” the state cabinet member said.

Samaddar himself confirmed that all his future course of actions in the matter will be determined based on the suggestions that he receives both from his legal experts as well as from the party leadership

–IANS

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