CBI closes Nobel-retrieve chapter under political pressure

Kolkata, Sep 3 (UNI) Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today asserted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) drew the curtain on the investigation into the theft of Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel prize under sheer political pressure.

Talking to reporters here, Ms Banerjee said whenever there was a CBI probe into any incident in the state, it was more often than not abruptly closed midway to ''suppress the truth''.

Ms Banerjee opined that the failure of the CBI to unravel the truth would send a wrong signal to the people.

She alleged that the investigation into the Nobel theft was purposely closed under political compulsion, particularly of the CPI(M).

The CBI could never conduct any investigation in the state freely, she said.

She came down heavily on the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for being ''hand in glove'' with the CPI(M) in closing the CBI probe into the theft and said the UPA government was scared of the Left Front's withdrawing support to the Centre.

Ms Banerjee iterated that the CPI(M) was sheltering criminals in the state and the common people have no guarantee of their security.

Senior CBI officials were being harassed in the state by the CPI(M) on cases pertaining to Chota Angaria, Tapasi Malik murder, Nandigram incident and the Nobel theft, and one particular CBI official was being made the ''scapegoat,'' she said.

The Trinamool chief said she would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week and take up all the matters with him in New Delhi.

UNI