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Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday accused the West Bengal’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of carrying out political vendetta against him after he was questioned by the Kolkata police for over five hours at the Shakespeare Sarani police station in the state capital.

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee leaves the Shakespeare Sarani police station after appearing in connection with a scuffle case in Kolkata on Sept. 1. (PTI)Banerjee, who was summoned to the police station in connection with a clash between his supporters with government officials who went to his Camac Street office to remove an unauthorised billboard on August 27.

“This is political vendetta. The CM is threatening everybody in a tone that indicates that he will have the last word in democracy. Why are they (BJP) so afraid of the TMC? Why are they keen on taking over our offices,” Banerjee told the media after emerging from the Shakespeare Sarani police station at about 5:45pm.

“People are not fools. They can see the truth. If EVMs of some assembly seats are examined now, people will know how the BJP came to power,” Banerjee said, referring to the TMC’s allegation that electoral malpractices led to the BJP victory in the state elections in April.

Banerjee trashed the charges. “Nobody was molested. On the contrary, videos show police dragging our workers down the staircase. Tariq, one of our arrested workers, was tortured in custody. Three more were arrested without notices being served to them as per law. There are many procedural lapses,” Banerjee said.

Fire department officers inspected the fire fighting system at the Camac Street building on Monday and told reporters that alarms and sprinklers were not working properly.

“Efforts were made yesterday to harass our workers at our party office. Had the administration shown this eagerness to conduct fire audits earlier, so many people wouldn’t have died at the two hotels in Tarapith and Kolkata. Or, so many files wouldn’t have been destroyed in a mysterious fire at the Alipore administrative building after the BJP came to power,” Banerjee said.