Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court on March 5 resigned as the Judge and announced his plan to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
“I am joining the BJP. I will be joining soon. Maybe on March 7 in the afternoon,” the former Calcutta High court judge said at a press conference. Speaking to mediapersons at his residence, Mr. Gangopadhyay admitted that he has been in touch with the BJP. “I approached the BJP and the BJP approached me,” he quipped.
The former judge who has presided over crucial cases including that of West Bengal school job scam had earlier in the day sent his resignation President Droupadi Murmu with copies to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court T.S. Sivagnanam.
Mr. Gangopadhyay also added that it was for the BJP leadership to decide as to which seat will he be contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha election or whether he will be contesting at all or not. Speaking to media persons he criticised Trinamool Congress leadership and accused it of corruption. “Trinamool is not a political party. It is a jatra [rural theatre] party. The act they are performing in Maa, Maati Manus,” he said.
Mr. Gangopadhyay is his capacity as a judge had directed CBI investigation in over a dozen of cases involving the recruitment scam. On certain occasions, he had made comments about his brother Judges at the High Court and at one occasion tried to stay a Supreme Court order. Former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, two MLAs, and several other leaders of Trinamool Congress have been arrested by the Central agencies in the recruitment scam.
Asked about the reasons for not joining the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Justice Gangopadhyay said that “he was a proud Hindu” and not an atheist. He had announced his decision to resign and join politics on February 3, and leaders across all major Opposition parties had welcomed him in their party.
Quoting the former judge’s remarks “I approached the BJP and BJP approached me,” made earlier in the day, Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said, “This is very interesting and you have to read between the lines. Hence, he confessed that he was in touch with the BJP when he delivered his judgements on various cases. I will leave the rest to the people.”
Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee dared Mr. Gangopadhyay to contest from any seat in the State. “No matter which seat he contests from, we will defeat him. Neither Narendra Modi nor Suvendu Adhikari will be able to stop his defeat because he is a corrupt person. And there is evidence for the same. Corruption doesn’t just entail money but also giving politically motivated judgements while remaining in the judiciary,” he added.
