On Friday afternoon while he was being brought to Kolkata from Asansol Special Correctional Home, Mondal appeared quite jovial while interacting with the media persons. “I am neither a thief nor a dacoit that I will be behind the bars for ever. No one spends the entire life behind the bars. So, I will also be released soon. When didi is beside me it is more than enough and I have nothing else to say,” Mondal told news persons.
Incidentally on Thursday afternoon, while addressing a gathering of party leaders and workers at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium, the chief minister gave a call to her party workers from Birbhum to be ready to bring Mondal out of the prison with “the honour of a hero”.
Incidentally, on Friday afternoon, Mondal was presented at a special court at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of Kolkata related to an explosion case at Mangalkot in East Burdwan district that took place in 2010 during the earlier Left Front regime. However, the court acquitted him of all charges in the case on Friday. “It is the victory of truth and it is proved now that a false case was registered against me in 2010,” Mondal said after being acquitted. The court also acquitted 14 other accused in that explosion case.
Since Mondal’s arrest by the CBI, the chief minister has claimed Mondal was innocent. She has come in Mondal’s support while totally distancing herself from former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general, Partha Chatterjee.
Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the multi- crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam.
