Amit Shah demands Kolkata top cop's removal for 'botched' sting

Accusing city police commissioner Rajeev Kumar of direct involvement in a "failed attempt to carry out a sting" on BJP leader Rahul Sinha, party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday demanded the top cop's removal.

Shah said the Election Commission should not only remove the city's top cop but also those involved in the Narada sting operation against several Trinamool leaders.

"Two Special Branch personnel of the Kolkata Police tried to carry out a sting operation. They were caught. A drama was enacted, and they were suspended and detained," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief said at the Press Club here.

"Why are you acting against small fry when the police commissioner has a direct role in this? I demand the Election Commission immediately remove all police officers seen in the Narada sting operation as well those involved in this botched sting to ensure free and fair elections," he said.

Ridiculing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Shah said the "botched" sting operation was a desperate move by the ruling Trinamool Congress party, some of whose leaders were allegedly caught on camera taking bribes in the sting.

"I have heard about a lot of investigative journalists doing sting operations, but I have never heard of a state government sending policemen to conduct a sting and try to implicate our leader Rahul Sinha," Shah said.

Sinha, a BJP national secretary, on Monday alleged that two city police Special Branch officers, with a motive to conduct a sting, offered him a "fat amount" to "cooperate with them" in smuggling cattle to Bangladesh.

The duo was subsequently suspended after Sinha filed a police complaint.

Attacking Banerjee, Shah said: "I also want to tell Mamata-ji that by employing such tactics, you cannot defame the Bharatiya Janata Party. Gold is gold, brass is brass. Since you (Trinamool) yourselves have been caught, you tried to frame us, but in the end you stood exposed again."

He also accused the Trinamool government of pursuing the politics of appeasement and encouraging infiltration from Bangladesh at the cost of law and order in West Bengal.

"Whichever state the BJP is in power, we neither appease anyone nor are afraid of anyone. There is rule of law and the situation is unlike what it is here (in the state)," Shah said.