Congress holds rally in support of “Bengal’s daughter” Rhea Chakraborty in Kolkata
KOLKATA: The Congress in West Bengal, actor Rhea Chakraborty’s home state, today took out a rally in support of the actor who has been charged in alleged drugs-related case linked to the death of her friend and actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of Congress workers hit the streets of West Bengal’s Kolkata on Saturday seeking justice for the actor, calling her ‘daughter of Bengal’. Rhea is currently lodged in Byculla jail after the Narcotics Control Bureau found credible evidence of her involvement in the drug cartel.
The protest to show support to Ms Chakraborty adds to the political row over the case. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had been instrumental in asking the centre to let the Central Bureau of Investigation take over the case from the Mumbai Police, after Mr Rajput’s family in Bihar filed a First Information Report in Patna against Ms Chakraborty.
The Congress workers chanted slogans in support of Rhea Chakraborty in the rally. They also carried banners and placards claiming that the arrest of Rhea was a part of political conspiracy. Congress invoke the ‘religion card’ to score political points
It is pertinent to note here, that Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury after taking over as PCC president in Kolkata had described Rhea Chakraborty as a ‘Bengali Brahmin lady’ and called her arrest over drug charges “ludicrous”.
The ruling alliance in Maharashtra, where the BJP is in the opposition, had defended the Mumbai Police probe and hit back at allegations of weak investigation. “Political conspiracy and vindictive behaviour against Rhea Chakraborty, the daughter of Bengal, will not be tolerated,” the Congress tweeted today.
“The protest rally was taken out from provincial Congress office to Wellington junction on the instructions of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, president of the West Bengal Congress,” the party tweeted.
Ms Chakraborty is in Mumbai’s Byculla jail for now. A court rejected bail on Friday after hearing arguments from the actor as well as the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the agency that arrested her while investigating drugs chargess.
The ruling NDA in Bihar on Tuesday had said Ms Chakraborty’s arrest by the NCB was “an important step” in the direction of securing justice for the Patna-born actor, whose death has struck an emotional chord with the people of the state.
The Janata Dal (United)-BJP alliance also criticised Ms Chakraborty for filing a “baseless” FIR against the sisters of the dead actor and questioned the “support” extended to her by the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra, for “reasons the Shiv Sena knows better”.
“In the (Shiv) Sena mouthpiece Saamna, (Sanjay) Raut had been coming out in support of (Rhea) Chakraborty and making appalling observations about the bereaved family of (Sushant Singh) Rajput. This shows that the Shiv Sena did not want that the truth be out in the case, for reasons it knows better,” BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said in a statement, according to news agency PTI.
Congress MLA Manoj Chakraborty today alleged Ms Chakraborty’s arrest was linked to politics in Bihar. “Was it orchestrated by the centre with an eye on the Bihar polls?” he said.
On Wednesday, Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, had said Mr Rajput was an Indian actor, but the “BJP turned him into a Bihari actor” only to score electoral points. “Rhea Chakraborty has been indicted not for abetment of suicide or murder or any economic offences; she has been arrested under NDPS, ludicrous,” he said, referring to the law against narcotics.
Sources said the NCB did not want to take Ms Chakraborty into custody because it could “weaken” her confession. The NCB told the court that her confession was voluntary and made while she was not in custody.
However, the actor’s legal team is still challenging the confession statements, saying her questioning over three days for eight hours each was like custodial interrogation.
Probably in his desperate attempt to woo the state electorate ahead of the upcoming 2021 West Bengal state elections, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was seen skillfully invoking his party’s one of the oldest and most peddled ‘religion and caste-based’ narrative.
Quickly clinching on to the part Bengali lineage of Sushant’s girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty, the Congress MP on Wednesday Tweeted: “Rhea’s father is a former military officer who served the nation. Rhea is a Bengali Brahmin lady; justice to actor Sushant Singh Rajput should not be interpreted as justice to a Bihari. The father of Rhea is also entitled to demand justice for his kids, trial by media is an ominous portent for our judicial system. Justice for all is one of the basic tenets of our Constitution.”
Bureau Report with Agency Inputs ).
