Nationalist Roopa Ganguly is involved in Child Trafficking

In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the names of its Central and State leaders -- national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and women's wing president Roopa Ganguly -- has been mentioned by a key accused in a recent child trafficking case in North Bengal.

The accused, Chandana Chakraborty, who ran a child care home in north Bengal, alleged on Tuesday that Juhi Chowdhury, a general secretary of State BJP's women's wing, perhaps spoke to Mr. Vijayvargiya and Ms. Ganguly to "resolve some issues" about the child care home.

BJP denies allegation

The BJP leadership, however, denied the allegation.

"I have not spoken to anyone (Central BJP leaders). Juhi spoke to them and perhaps to Roopa Ganguly and Kailash Vijayvargiya. I was sitting in another room when she spoke to them," Ms. Chakraborty told journalists in Siliguri before being produced at a local court. She also said that she approached Ms. Chowdhury for "some help" and she assured her of "resolving all the problems" about running the child care home.

Denying the allegation Mr. Vijayvargiya accused the Kolkata Police of "being controlled by Trinammol Congress" and said that "they (Kolkata Police) keep conspiring against us.

"They have already targeted our party leaders Joyprakash Majumdar and Sishir Bajoria. Now they are conspiring against me," Mr. Vijayvargiya said

Home owner held

The child trafficking racket was busted by the State's Criminal Investigation Department last week when they arrested the child care home owner Chandana Chakraborty and one of her associates. Within a few days one more person was arrested in connection with the case. The State BJP was in a spot when the name of its women's wing general secretary Juhi Chowdhury cropped during the investigation.

Accused absconding

Ms. Chowdhury, who is currently absconding, has been at the centre of a controversy within the State BJP, as a section of party leaders have contradicted the State president Dilip Ghose's stand in this regard.

While Mr. Ghosh has repeatedly said that Ms. Chowdhry is a "victim of TMC's political vendetta", Union Minister Babul Supriyo recently questioned the reason behind her going into hiding. A visibly annoyed Dilip Ghosh made it clear that his stand in this regard is final.

Recently Roopa Ganguly embarrassed State leadership when she postedthat it was the State president who "advised" her to make Juhi Chowdhury the general secretary of the women's wing.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kolkata/child-trafficking-accused-names-vijayvargiya-roopa/article17384892.ece