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After Mamata and Mahua, Hawala scam petitioner also demands Dhankar’s resignation

After Bengal CM and TMC MP's scathing attack on Dhankar, Jain Hawala case petitioner journalist Vineet Narain says West Bengal governor must resign on moral ground 

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar who has been very vocal against Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress government since he assumed the office, seems to be on the receiving end of the Bengal chief minister and her team.

On Monday, Mamata Banerjee had alleged during a press conference that Dhankar, being charge-sheeted in the Jain Hawala money laundering case, is a ‘corrupt’ man.

Bengal’s chief minister had also mentioned that she had written three letters to the union government to remove Dhankar from the post of governor.

The Hawala scam, also known as the Jain Diaries case, made it to the headlines in the mid-nineties. The case was related to the alleged siphoning of money by politicians through hawala brokers, namely the Jain brothers. The scam amounting to 18 million USD involved the names of some of the leading politicians of the country.

Countering the allegation, Dhankar seemed to be on his back foot. He claimed that he had not been charge-sheeted in the Jain Hawala money laundering case and that the Apex Court had acquitted him. He further noted that a seasoned politicians like Mamata Banerjee should refrain from making such allegations publicly.

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When asked if he would initiate any action against Bengal CM, Dhankar replied that Mamata Banerjee was like his younger sister. “She made such comments to create a sensation. But Indian culture doesn’t permit me to take action against my younger sister,” he said.

However, TMC seems determined to continue the attack and iterate on his removal. Taking a step further in that direction, TMC MP Mahua Moitra also tweeted Punjab and Haryana High court’s full bench order in which Dhankar, then an MP from Rajasthan has been mentioned as beneficiary of illegal residential land allotment.

This is the third serious attack by TMC against Dhankar.

Prior to this, Moitra had shared a list on Twitter highlighting several recent appointments done at the governor’s house (Raj Bhavan, Kolkata). Almost all recruits are relatives of the present governor, who had refuted this allegation too, but netizens were not ready to buy his arguments on this time.

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Amid these developments, journalist Vineet Narain who had lodged an FIR in the Jain Hawala money laundering case thanked Mamata Banerjee for raising the issue. In his Facebook and Twitter post on, he wrote —Jagdeep Dhankar and Arif Md Khan should resign on moral ground. Vineet claimed that it was a matter related to terrorism funding, and neither Dhankar nor Arif Mohammed Khan, another accused in the same case, should continue being the governor of Bengal or Kerala, respectively.

“Being a Senior Advocate and Governor, Mr. Dhankar should not give such false statements. When there has been no trial in the trial court and the entire case was monitored by the Hon’ble Supreme Court can he produce the evidence of the acquittal given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” wrote the senior journalist in his post.

However, political commentator Rasheed Kidwai believes, “Nothing is going to happen (neither Dhankar will resign nor he will be called back by the center), these are mere posturings.”

Seeing the track record of the Narendra Modi government, it seems, Rasheed Kidwai is assuming right. But then Dhankar, who has been very vocal and critical of TMC government, because of which he often gets clubbed as an opposition leader in the garb of a governor by many will not find it easy to function in the same manner during the third term of the Mamata government.

Shahnawaz Akhtar

is Founder of eNewsroom. He loves doing human interest, political and environment related stories.

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