Trinamool Congress workers attack BJP office after party's MP arrested

Hundreds of supporters of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress attacked the state party headquarters of India's ruling BJP on Tuesday evening, hours after MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay was arrested for alleged involvement in the Rose Valley ponzi case.

Bandyopadhyay, the party's leader in parliament, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after he arrived in their regional office to face questioning in the Rose Valley case.

The owner of Rose Valley Gautam Kundu is already in jail.

Another Trinamool MP and film actor Tapas Pal was arrested on Dec 30 in connection with the same case.

Pal and Bandyopadhyay are accused of involvement with the chit fund company and may be booked for complicity in defrauding of thousands of unsuspecting investors.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the arrests were part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to 'silence the opposition' after the Trinamool had strongly backed the countrywide Congress campaign against the demonetisation .

"We are victims of a very vindictive prime minister who has ruined the country by demonetisation and is now trying to silence all opposition," Banerjee said here as she announced countrywide protests.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel called up Banerjee on Tuesday evening but it was not yet clear what they discussed.

Kolkata police threw a cordon around the BJP state office in Muralidhar Lane in Kolkata's Central Avenue after hundreds of Trinamool supporters, armed with sticks and machetes, tried to storm it.

As some BJP supporters rushed out of the office with sticks to confront the Trinamool supporters, police separated them but was not seen as chasing anyone away.

Brickbats flew thick and fast and BJP spokesperson Jayprakash Majumder said at least 20 of their party workers and some policemen were injured.

The BJP has demanded posting of central para-military forces in front of their party offices after the violence on Tuesday.

Tension rose in central Calcutta and public transport had to be diverted on the busy central Kolkata thoroughfare.

Mamata Banerjee announced a Jan 9 protest by party supporters in front of the Reserve Bank of India 's regional office, followed by protests elsewhere in India against the arrest of the party MPs.

"Modi has to go . He is ruining the country," said Banerjee, when asked for reactions.

BJP Bengal spokesperson Siddhartha Nath Singh said law will take its own course.

"Don't read much in the timing. Trinamool leaders are involved in several chit fund scams, that has led to defrauding of millions. If needed, more leaders will be arrested because law is same for all," Singh said.

In the evening, senior Trinamool leaders including several ministers were seen gathering with hundreds of party supporters in front of the CBI office in Salt Lake.

CBI sources said Bandyopadhyay is being flown to Odisha, like Tapas Pal, and would be produced in court there tomorrow in connection with the Rose Valley case.

A Trinamool minister in Banerjee's cabinet, Madan Mitra, is already in jail in connection with another ponzi scam involving the Saradha chit fund company.

Several Trinamool leaders including MPs and ministers have been questioned in that case as well.