The winds of the political storm brewing in West Bengal over the CBI's bid on Sunday to question Kolkata police chief Rajeev Kumar in ponzi schemes reached the Parliament on Monday, as the Centre warned Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that a "constitutional breakdown" in the state can lead to the imposition of Central rule.
Making a suo motu statement amid slogans by opposition decrying CBI as Modi's tota (parrot), Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, "There may be constitutional breakdown in West Bengal and the Centre has the power to take action to maintain normalcy in any part of the country." Terming the CBI officials being held hostage by the state police as "unprecedented" and a threat to the federal political system of country, Singh told the House that the police chief was summoned many times prior but he did not respond.
Events galloped at a fast pace after Banerjee escalated her confrontation with the Modi government by continuing her sit-in against the Central government's "high-handedness", with Kumar in tow.
Additionally, taking a grim view of reports that CBI officials experienced intimidation and threat, the home ministry had swung into action late on Sunday night and asked West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to take immediate stock of the situation.
To that end, Tripathi summoned chief secretary Malay Kumar De and DGP Virendra Kumar to his residence on Monday morning and sought a ground report of the prevailing situation.
He also separately gathered information from his own sources to take stock of the sequence of events between the CBI and Kolkata police officials and sent a report by 3 pm to the Centre.
Sources claimed that in the emailed report, Governor Tripathi mentioned how the CBI officials were prevented from carrying out their duty.
The home ministry, which is also controls the IPS cadre, is now preparing to look into the role of certain senior IPS officers who allegedly played a role in obstructing the CBI team.
The ministry will also examine in detail how these officers violated their service conduct rules during the stand-off and prevented the CBI from questioning the Kolkata police commissioner.
