PC faces protest from Cong-affiliated lawyers
KOLKATA: Lawyers claiming to be affiliated with the Congress on Wednesday protested against senior party leader and eminent lawyer P Chidambaram outside the Calcutta high court for opposing a petition filed by party’s West Bengal unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
The PIL filed by Chowdhury pertains to the 2017 sale of the West Bengal government’s entire 47% stake in Metro Dairy to agro-processing firm Keventer Agro Ltd, the project’s sole private partner which, a short while later, sold a 15% stake in itself a Singapore-based firm, Mandala Capital for a much higher price.
To be sure, Keventer Agro is in multiple businesses — dairy (under Metro), processed foods, and fresh fruits and vegetables — and the stake that was sold was in the company, not in Metro.
Chowdhury filed the plea in 2018, demanding a probe by CBI into what he alleged to be a “scam”.
Chidambaram, who represented Keventer in the HC, sought dismissal of the PIL.
“You have become an agent of the TMC when workers of your party are struggling against its atrocities... Go back...,” lawyer and Congress leader Koustav Bagchi shouted at Chidambaram, who did not make any comment and left in a car.
Chowdhury, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, said: “What can I say if a leader like Chidambaram fights the case? I intend to take this fight to the Supreme Court. Lawyers who voiced their protest they must have thought it is the right thing to do.”
He claimed in his petition that the state government, which had set up the company with public money, suffered a loss of at least ₹500 crore by selling its shares to Keventer at a very low price.
State government officials refused to speak on this issue.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “The TMC has nothing to say about a court case. Today’s incident is an internal matter of the Congress.”