Mamata Banerjee Hands Over Land Documents To Amartya Sen Amid Land Row

Amid allegations of "unauthorised occupation" against Nobel laureate Amartya Sen by Visva-Bharati, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday handed over land-related documents to him, asserting that "no one can question him" in future.

The chief minister, who reached Bolpur in the second half of the day, visited Mr Sen at his residence and dubbed the accusations made against him as "baseless".

The chief minister also announced that the Nobel laureate would be accorded 'Z category' security in future.

"Allegations of land grabbing against him (Amartya Sen) are baseless. It is an attempt to tarnish his reputation. No one has the right to insult him. We won't tolerate it," the chief minister said as the economist sat beside her.

The CM said her government would decide on the next course of legal action once she was back in Kolkata.

Visva-Bharati, in a missive last week, asked Mr Sen to immediately hand over parts of a plot he was allegedly occupying in an "unauthorised manner" at Santiniketan.

The varsity also gave Sen two options -- "intervention of the court of law or discussion with Visva-Bharati authority".

The CM said, "I have been hearing baseless allegations against him for a long time... I waited as I went through the records and also asked officials to do the same. We have dug out the original land records. I will direct the district magistrate to do what is needed," she said.

She also ordered the setting up a police camp outside Sen's residence in Birbhum.

Lashing out at varsity authorities for "trying to saffronise" the institution, the TMC boss said she has immense "respect for Visva-Bharati" but was "pained to see the central university function like an island disconnected from the rest of Bengal".

She urged the BJP and its associates to "stop humiliating the Nobel laureate, who has not just made Bengal but the entire country proud".

Hitting out at Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty over his allegations against Mr Sen, the chief minister wondered whether he is worthy of holding the position.

"He (Chakraborty) is attempting to saffronise the university. He has no right to insult someone. Is he even worthy of being the V-C of Visva-Bharati?" she said.

Later in the evening, the state government released a press note, which said that officials, after checking records, have found that Mr Sen had not illegally occupied any land as alleged by Visva-Bharati.

"The state government has checked all old land records. It was found that Ashutosh Sen, father of Professor Sen, has been given a long-term lease of 1.3 acres and not 1.25 acres as alleged by Visva-Bharati," the release added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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