Constitutional Anarchy in Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal, Centre Tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: There is a constitutional anarchy in Mamata Banerjee-run West Bengal, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Friday.

Appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta claimed that the central agencies were in a perpetual state of fear and were being hounded for performing their duties. "There is a constitutional anarchy in West Bengal if I may say it succinctly," Mehta contended.

He went on to say that there is a complete lawlessness in the state, and cited the recent incident involving wife of West Bengal Chief Minister's nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.

"This lady was stopped at the Kolkata airport by the custom officials to check her luggage. She also happens to be the wife of a sitting MP of the ruling party. Suddenly local police start coming in and asking the custom officials to stop from their duties," said Mehta.

He added that policemen kept coming in and the custom officials were also threatened of an FIR if they did not let the lady go without a check. "Finally she was escorted out by the local police without custom officials' nod," rued Mehta.

Mehta pointed out that the CBI is already before the apex court alleging contempt against the state chief secretary and DGP for preventing them to probe Saradha chit fund scam properly and intimidating CBI sleuths.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the state government, refuted these allegations and contended that the central government was trying to make headlines for the media.

On its part, the court asked Mehta to file an appropriate application if they wanted any specific directive in this regard. The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the contempt case on April 8.

Mehta was referring to the controversy surrounding Rujira Naroola, wife of West Bengal Chief Minister's nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, who was detained allegedly with undeclared 2 kg gold by Customs officials at Kolkata's International Airport last week.

Naroola reportedly made a phone call and a team of Kolkata Police arrived and escorted her out of the airport. The police officials allegedly also warned Customs officials that they should "release (Naroola) immediately or face problems".