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Delhi upset with Mamata

Tuesday, 3 June 2014


India's home ministry is upset because police in West Bengal state are not acting firmly against several Islamic radicals known to be hiding there, according to bdnews24.com.
Intelligence Bureau has provided the ministry with details of several Jamaat-e-Islami activists and other Islamic radicals who have fled a crackdown in Bangladesh and are hiding in and around Kolkata.
The new Home Minister Rajnath Singh has been briefed about this problem by officials when he took charge last week.
Some top Trinamool Congress leaders from the Urdu-speaking Muslim community are said to be providing these fugitives shelter -- even in their own homes.
"But the state government is taking no action against them. The locations of these fugitives are well known. But law and order is a state subject under Indian Constitution and the Central agencies can't arrest anyone," said a senior home ministry official. But he was unwilling to be named.
 He said the fugitives include some who are wanted for serious crimes like murder and sabotage in Bangladesh.
"We should be able to catch them and send them back to Bangladesh but how can we do that if the police in Kolkata and West Bengal don't move against these criminals?" the official said.
He said most of these Bangladesh fugitives had taken shelter in Kolkata, especially in the Salt Lake and Laketown areas, and in adjoining North 24-Parganas district.
But he was not willing to provide further details because 'that might compromise any possible action against them.'
Salt Lake has a separate police commissioner, whose 'obstructionist role' in the Saradha chit fund scam has upset central agencies after the case was handed over to them by the Supreme Court.
"The Salt Lake police are neither helping the central Enforcement Directorate in the Saradha scam nor moving against the Bangladesh criminals," the official said.
There were indications that the Indian Home Secretary may be asked by the new minister Rajnath Singh to take up the issue with the state government.