Kolkata: West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress heaved a sigh of relief before the forthcoming Durga Puja festival as the Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the Calcutta High Court order directing Enforcement Directorate (ED) to be a party in a public interest litigation (PIL) on the assets of 19 party leaders, including eight ministers.
The apex court also observed that there is nothing unnatural in the growth of assets of these leaders.
Besides the eight ministers, the names of Assembly Speaker, Biman Bandopadhyay was also in the list of the Trinamool leaders named in the PIL filed by advocate Firdaus Shamim.
The PIL said that the property and assets of these leaders increased manifold during the period 2011 to 2016, and appealed to the Calcutta High Court to direct the ED to investigate the reasons behind these growths of assets and properties.
A section of the Trinamool leaders named in the PIL approached the Supreme Court with the plea to quash the Calcutta High Court’s order.
Finally, on Thursday afternoon, the apex court quashed that order, bringing relief for the Trinamool leaders.
Trinamool state General Secretary and spokesman, Kunal Ghosh said that by quashing the order of the Calcutta High Court, the apex court has foiled yet another conspiracy attempt against his party.
(IANS)
