CBI working as pet mouse: Mamata

Slamming the BJP-led central government for "targeting" her party and putting leaders behind bars, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is acting like a "pet mouse".

"The CBI is acting like a pet mouse. We respect the CBI as an institution. But the one working now is not the real CBI. This is the CBI of 'Gujju babus'," Banerjee said in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Trinamool Congress supremo claimed that she and her party are being constantly targeted by the BJP for opposing the central government's demonetisation move.

"My party is constantly facing the heat of the Centre because we are pro people. We talk about the problems of common man," she claimed.

Terming Trinamool MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay's arrest by the CBI as a part of the BJP's "vindictive politics" Banerjee said, "They have put Sudip da in jail. But when time comes, he will come out of it like a brave man."

"We are not scared. Put as many of my people in jail as you want. I want to see how many jails you have. A day will come when you would have only jails and nothing else. The 'jail ka khel' (strategy of putting people behind bars) would not work," Banerjee said in a scathing attack on the central government.

The state chief also stood by her ministers and party MPs who have been accused by the CBI in the Narada sting footage case saying their innocence will be proved one day.

"There is nothing to fear. They have registered a case against 13 persons. They will not be able to prove anything. They have not done anything wrong and this will be proved one day. We believe that justice will be delivered," she claimed.

--IANS

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