Mamata vs CBI row: BJP office vandalized in Kolkata, TMC accused

Local leadership of BJP alleged that several miscreants came to the party office at Harish Chatterjee Street, very close to Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence, at around 1 pm. and they vandalized the office.

"Covering their faces with black stuff, few TMC goons came to our Bhawanipore party office in the afternoon and after ransacking the room, they escaped the scene," a local BJP leader told IBNS.

"They destroyed furniture at our party office and torched several party documents and papers," the leader added.

Following the hour-long face-off between the CBI and Kolkata Police on Sunday evening, Mamata Banerjee has been sitting on an indefinite dharna at Esplanade's Metro Channel since last night.

After Mamata Banerjee had started protesting against the CBI's attempt to quiz Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in chit fund probe, leader-activists of Bengal's ruling party took to the streets and blocked railway tracks and roads at several locations across the state.

Earlier on Sunday evening, more than 40 CBI officials went to city's top cop Rajeev Kumar's residence in south Kolkata's Loudon Street to interrogate him in connection with the probe agency's ongoing investigation into a chit fund scam.

Besides manhandling the officers, Kolkata Police 'forcibly' detained them from the local and took them to local Shakespeare Sarani Police Station

In a counter action, police 'sealed' the entry and exit gates of two CBI offices in Kolkata- CGO Complex and Nizam Palace, and cops were deployed to the residence of CBI's Joint Director Pankaj Kumar Srivastava.

Later, Central paramilitary forces were deployed to the CBI premises in the city.

Police, later, released all the detained CBI officers and withdrew forces from the CBI offices.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)