NEW DELHI: Prominent BJP leader and former actress Roopa Ganguly and BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were named in a child trafficking racket case in West Bengal by an arrested accused.
Chadana Chakraborty, the chairperson of Bimala Sishu Griho, who was arrested with Chief Adoption Officer Sonali Mondal for allegedly selling at least 17 children through shady adoption deals named Rajya Sabha MP and Mahila Morcha President Roopa Ganguly, Vijayvargia and another BJP leader Juhi Chowdhury who was arrested on Wednesday.
Siliguri (WB):CID have arrested BJP leader Juhi Chowdhury in connection with child trafficking case.She was arrested from India-Nepal border pic.twitter.com/UEaubTBj4h
— ANI (@ANI) March 1, 2017
Chakraborty admitted that she went to Delhi with Chowdhury to seek “help” for her organisation and claimed the BJP leader did all the negotiations with the senior leadership while she was in a different room. “Juhi assured me she would sort out all the issues,” Chakraborty said.
“I haven’t talked to anyone, Juhi did. She might have talked to (BJP leaders) Roopa Ganguly and Kailash Vijayvargiya. I was sitting in a separate room. We are innocent. We will definitely help in the investigation,” said Chandana Chakraborty, Chairperson of Bimala Sishu Griho.
Speaking to CNN News 18, Roopa Ganguly said naming her in the case was a conspiracy plotted by Trinamool Congress.
“They just needed to blame the BJP. As simple as that. I’ll react with facts and move the court over the allegation. This is a conspiracy by the TMC government.”
Juhi Chowdhury was on the run for the last few days after her name was linked to the case. She was brought for interrogation to the Pintel Village, where the CID has set up a temporary camp and will be produced in court on Wednesday.
“Juhi Chowdhury is involved with the adoption centre for the last three years. If something wrong or immoral was done, it was done by her. Why am I being victimised? I am not the culprit,” Chakraborty said in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday morning.”
Denying the allegations, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh claimed on Tuesday morning that Chowdhury was being victimised as part of a larger political conspiracy.
“Juhi was not a part of their (child adoption centre) committee. She has been dragged into the case as she went to Delhi with her (Chakraborty)… If Juhi is found guilty, the law will take its course,” Ghosh said in Kolkata.
The CID blew off the lid of a child trafficking racket conducting raids in homes and nursing homes in Baduria of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal since November last year.
(With inputs from IANS/PTI)