Following the Delhi court's verdict of awarding death penalty to Batla House case convict, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda on Tuesday asked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when she will quit politics as the case didn't turn out to be "fake".
Addressing a public meeting at Kotulpur, Nadda said, "Mamata Ji had called Batla House encounter fake. She had said that she will quit politics if it turns out to be not fake. The court has now sentenced death penalty to Ariz Khan. I want to ask Mamata Ji now, when will you quit politics?"
A Delhi court on Monday awarded the death penalty to the 2008 Batla House encounter case convict Ariz Khan calling it the "rarest of rare" case.
Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav also slapped a fine of Rs 11 lakh against the convict and directed that out of the fine amount, Rs 10 lakh be released to the family of deceased Mohan Chand Sharma as compensation.
The incident took place a week after five serial blasts had hit Delhi on 13 September 2008 in which at least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma of Special Cell was killed during the 2008 Batla House encounter.
Alleging that the Mamata Banerjee dispensation has not done anything for the welfare of farmers and Adivasis in West Bengal, the BJP president claimed that after practising politics of appeasement for years, the TMC supremo has started reciting Sanskrit slokas to assert her Hindu identity.
She left several Hindu OBC castes such as Mahishya and Teli out of the reserved category because of her "politics of appeasement", and the BJP, if voted to power, will take steps to include them, Nadda said while addressing the rally.
Banerjee had won elections in the name of 'Ma, Mati, Manush' (Mother, Land and People), Nadda said and alleged that during the last decade, her party has engaged in "torturing women, killing BJP workers, dictatorship, extortion and politics of appeasement".
"I am told that Mamata Banerjee is now doing Chandi Path. But in the last 10 years, you have been engaged in minority appeasement. You have stopped Saraswati Puja in the state and immersion of idols of goddess Durga," he said.
The BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are at loggerheads in poll-bound West Bengal. The top leadership of the BJP has been holding public meetings and roadshows across the state in recent months.
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.
(With agency inputs)
