Kolkata: Abhishek Banerjee has attacked Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, for not providing evidence to defend himself regarding the case of Suvendu Adhikari's visit to his residence.
He tweeted, "Even after 72 hours, Mr Tushar Mehta, Hon'ble SG of India, has failed to release the 20 mins of CCTV footage of his OWN HOUSE to corroborate his OWN STATEMENT." "Mr SG, with such weak defence you can continue serving as @BJP4India's SECRET GENERAL, not INDIA’S SOLICITOR GENERAL", he continued.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's visit to the residence of the Solicitor General created a political storm on Friday. Trinamool Congress MPs, including Derek Derek O’Brien, Mahua Moitra and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy demanded the immediate removal of the Solicitor General since the BJP leader is an accused in the Narada and Saradha scam.
The Solicitor General, however, denied this accusation saying that though Suvendu Adhikari had visited his house ‘unannounced’ on Thursday, he declined to meet him.
“Shri Suvendu Adhikari did come to my residence cum office yesterday at around 3:00 p.m., unannounced. Since I was already in a pre-scheduled meeting in my chamber, my staff requested him to sit in the waiting room of my office building and offered him a cup of tea. When my meeting was over and thereafter my PPS [principal private secretary] informed me about his arrival, I requested my PPS to convey Mr Adhikari my inability to meet him and apologise as he had to wait,” Mehta said in a statement.
Suvendu Adhikari gave the same explanation too. He told reporters that he had visited Mehta's house to conduct a discussion regarding post-poll violence in Bengal but did not get to meet him.
In reply to that, TMC general secretary and Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee demanded Mehta to share the CCTV footage from his residence to prove that the meeting did not take place.
Abhishek Banerjee tweeted “Mr Mehta’s efforts to dismiss speculations regarding his clandestine meeting with @SuvenduWB can only be valuable if he makes all CCTV footage public until Mr. Adhikari was in his residence. Moreover, was Mr. Adhikari present in the SG's residence without prior appointment ?”
TMC MPs wrote to the Prime Minister demanding that Mehta should he "immediately removed" from his post. “The Solicitor General of India is the second highest law officer of the country after the Attorney General of India and advises Government of India and its various organs and in crucial legal matters such as Narada and Sarada cases. Such meeting between an accused in grave offences, with the learned Solicitor General who is advising such investigation agencies by whom the said accused is being investigated, is in direct conflict of interest with the statutory duties of learned Solilicitor General of India,” the letter said.
TMC MP are also meeting the President over the same issue today.