Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
Congress leader in West Bengal Abdul Mannan has alleged that Chatradhar Mahato had faked his COVID-19 report to avoid the National Investigation Agency’s hearing. Mannan also accused the Jhargram CMOH of foul play.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahato skipped the hearing at the Bankshall Court on Friday in Kolkata regarding the 2009 Rajdhani Express blocking and locopilot kidnapping case. He stated that he had tested positive for novel coronavirus.
However, Mannan is not ready to buy Mahato’s words. The West Bengal Assembly’s Leader of Opposition has said that the former Maoists-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) member joined hands with the Jhargram district CMHO to publish a fake coronavirus report.
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The Congress leader further claimed that, NIA has asked the medical official to appear before it as well as agency would interrogate the CMHO to find if Mahato actually faked his COVID-19 test or not.
Meanwhile, Mannan also accused the West Bengal government of always shielding the crimes committed by TMC leaders. The 68-year-old Congress leader alleged that the Mamata Banerjee was trying to do the same with Mahato by making him a honcho in the party.
Mahato, the leader from Lalgarh, was arrested in 2009 in a covert operation by the West Bengal police. He went on to spend 11 behind the bars before he was released in February earlier this year.
In 2009, the PCAPA members had blocked the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express in Banstala in West Bengal’s Jhargram district to demand for Mahato’s release after he was booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Even though most of the serious cases against Mahato were closed after he came out of the jail, many in TMC camp believe that the ongoing NIA action against him is a ploy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Meanwhile, the NIA, which reopened the 2009 Rajdhani Express case after a special court in Kolkata accepted their appeal for a fresh investigation, is considering a more serious approach from now onwards to get Mahato under their grabs.
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