Kolkata Police-CBI face-off: Oppn leaders called up to extend support, says Mamata

Kolkata: Amid the stand-off between the West Bengal government and the CBI, Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee Sunday said several leaders of opposition parties have called her up to extend their support and solidarity towards her "fight to protect the constitution".

"Leaders of various opposition parties including Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Chandrababu Naidu, Omar Abdullah, Ahmed Patel, M K Stalin had called me to extend their solidarity and support," she said at the venue of her sit-in demonstration. In an unprecedented development, a number of CBI officers, who had gone to question Kolkata Police chief Rajeev Kumar in connection with chit fund scam cases, were bundled into police jeeps, whisked to a police station and briefly detained on Sunday, officials said. Amid escalating tension between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Centre, Loudon Street in central Kolkata witnessed a virtual showdown between the state police and the CBI. Alleging the CBI action was "politically vindictive" and an attack on constitutional norms, Banerjee later began a dharna at Esplanade. Flanked by senior state ministers, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, West Bengal DG Virendra and ADG (law and order) Anuj Sharma, Banerjee was seen sitting on a chair at Esplanade.