AGARTALA, June 29 (TIWN): After tremendous pressure from all political parties Addl SP West (Urban) Sharmistha Chakraborty on Tuesday assured the agitated Mahila Morcha leaders of BJP that rapist TCS officer Panna Ahmed will be arrested within 48 hours. This statement from a police official surprised everyone because it is now clear to all that without permission of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar ( Home Minister) no one can touch the hair of such a highly promoted smuggler lobby backed TCS official especially Panna Ahmed , who is probably the most favoured after tainted TCS officer BDO Bimal Chakraborty. The rape incident of Panna Ahmed is a clear indication that the so-called Honest Chief Minister Manik Sarkar is patronizing the corrupt officials for his own personal interests . Congress , TMC and BJP have rocked the state during the last 24 hours demanding the arrest of Panna Ahmed , Joint Director of Youth & Sports Affairs.

A highly placed CPI-M leader( unwilling to reveal his name)  told TIWN over phone ," CM wants officials  to act like puppets under his instruction. And taking the advantage of this unholy scope so many officials in Tripura have become not only corrupted but also morally degraded. " 

He was alleged to have  forcefully raped the wife of a lawyer  of Agartala in his own residence . Accordingly the victim lodged a complaint in the West PS ( Case No 52/2016) under Section 342,506 and 376 of IPC. Interestingly police did not register Section 376(1) against Comrade Panna. The minimum punishment under this section is 7 years of imprisonment.

Panna Ahmed has always been known for being a Left Party worker(General Secretary of SFI during his college days) . Apart from being being the specially blessed official of Manik Sarkar, Panna is also known to a close aide of Youth & Sports Affairs Minister Shahid Choudhury.

Panna Ahmed's previous activities came to light when TIWN made contact with a top level official of state Secretariat. The official said ," When he was unemployed, Panna Ahmed was arrested with Pistol. However, he was supported by a group of officials and a group of Congress leaders and thus , he escaped punishment. "

Some more instances are given below:

1) When he was posted in Panisagar Panna Ahmed was accused of financial corruption of around Rs 6 crore. Accordingly, Departmental Procedures(DP) was initiated against him. But under the clear instruction of CM Manik that process was forcefully dropped

2) Panna Ahmed's brother-in-law namely Roman Mia is known as Phensedyl king of Sonamura. During his tenure as SDM Sonamura Panna gave him licence to carry on with his illegal activities

3)  Several cases of land grabbing were  registered against SDM Panna Ahmed. But no one was able to take stern action Panna Ahmed due to his close relation with CPI (M).

 It is to be mentioned here that former SDM of Sonamura Subasish Das was transferred for doing his job honestly by destroying over Rs. 100 crores worth of ganja fields and in his place when Panna was made SDM Sonamura , Ganja planters started their business with new rhythm.  

Over the last decades( ever since Manik Sarkar became Chief Minister)  Tripura has become a hunting ground if corrupt officials . S K Panda, K Nagaraj, GSG Ayyangar, Bimal Chakraborty, Pankaj Chakraborty and latest inclusion is Panna Ahmed. All knows about the negative role of Manik Sarkar during Bimal Chakraborty episode. Here is a reminder :-

1) On 19th May 2014 the then  Finance Minister Badal Choudhury ( after the submission of Special Internal Audit Report of Bishalgarh RD Block under MGNREGA scheme ) gave a Special Note mentioning ," Note 2&3 is approved . An FIR should be lodged against the involved Govt staff i.e., Programme Officer (BDO) and other implementing officers of Laxmibill Gram Panchayat under Bidhalgarh R D Block within 7 days by the RD Deptt for misappropriation of Rs 57.04 lakhs of public exchequer/Govt fund." The same note was sent to the then Chief Secretary SK Panda on the same date vide F.No.2632/Min/Fin/2014 dt 19/05/2014.

2) Receiving this allegation S K Panda too wrote a special note and on the same date (19/05/2914) Sen to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar saying ," This is a serious matter. The deptt may be advised to lodged FIR for the breach of that . Initiate proceedings for recovery of loss caused to Govt against Govt staff. Internal Audit of the remaining GP/VCs may be taken. "

But on the 23rd of May 2014 Manik Sarkar reshuffled his cabinet and Finance Ministry was snatched away from Badal Choudhury and given to his loyal Bhanulal Saha. This attempt was simply made to protect his specially favoured corrupt official cum DYFY state Secretary Amal Chakraborty's brother Bimal Chakraborty. Not only this. Bimal Chakraborty was transferred as Deputy Director of ICA under Bhanulal Saha.

All these activities indicate several doubts :

1) Why did Manik Sarkar instructed to drop DP (Departmental Procedure) against Panna Ahmed?

2) Why did CM Manik remain silent even after land grabbing allegation by Panna Ahmed during his term as SDM Sonamura( Minim Sarkar's Dhanpur constituency is also in Sonamura) ?

3) Why did Manik promoted Panna as Joint Director of Youth & Sports Affairs depriving many senior officials?

4) Is Manik Sarkar's regime since 2013 be known as the ' Golden Era of Corrupt Officials '.

In yet another interesting development  Manik's another trusted official cum former SFI leader and current Senior Deputy Magistrate of Khowai Pankaj Chakraborty has been summoned by Press Council of India to appear before the inquiry committee on 13th July 2016 in Suchna Bhawan in  New Delhi for his 'toilet paper' remark against newspapers.