Remove Sibal from party for representing Mamata regime: Bengal Congress

Kolkata, Jan 19 (IANS) Lashing out at former union minister Kapil Sibal for representing the West Bengal government in a petition concerning the CBI probe into the Saradha scam, the state Congress Monday sought his removal from the party.

The Mamata Banerjee government and the Trinamool Congress Monday filed two separate petitions urging the Supreme Court to monitor the CBI probe into the multi-crore rupee scam in which several leaders of Bengal's ruling party including transport minister Madan Mitra have been arrested.

Strongly condemning Sibal representing the Banerjee government before the Suupreme Court, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the party will never allow him to attend its programmes in Bengal.

"For Sibal, his profession is dearer than the party. It is natural that people who prefer their profession will take up any case in lieu of money. But, so long as I am the Congress chief here, we will never allow a person like him to attend any party programme in Bengal," he said.

Led by party leader Mala Roy, Congress activists took out a protest march seeking his removal from the party.

"We want to tell (party chief) Sonia Gandhi and (vice president) Rahul Gandhi that what Sibal has done is not at all acceptable to us. The central leadership should not endorse this and immediately ask Sibal to give up his membership from the party," said Roy.

Roy also said Sibal's action has dishonoured party leader Abdul Mannan's efforts who played a key role in filing the petition in which the Supreme Court eventually ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to take up the probe into the Saradha scam in Bengal.

"He can do whatever he wants after giving up his party membership. But we can't allow him to work as a Trinamool tout while being a Congress member. If he does not refrain from this, we will build up a massive movement against him," added Roy.

Lawyer and party leader Arunava Ghosh too slammed Sibal.

"We strongly condemn his action and we are writing to the central leadership apprising it about our opposition," he said.

Filed before an apex court bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur, the petitions by the Trinamool and Bengal government seek the intervention of the court alleging that the agency was acting as an "instrument" of the central government and targeting Trinamool leaders.