KOLKATA: In a jolt to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday booked a first information report (FIR) naming all 13 Narada sting accused persons under Sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The FIR includes the names of senior West Bengal ministers and TMC leaders Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Sultan Ahmed, Kakoli Ghoshdastidar, Suvendu Adhikari, Saradha scam accused Madan Mitra – who is out on bail -- and former railway minister Mukul Roy and Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee.
Sources said the CBI may form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to summon and interrogate every accused person. Just as in the Rose Valley scam probe, the summoned accused may be arrested for further investigation, the sources revealed.
During the preliminary probe, the agency found that crime was committed by the accused persons by accepting bribes. In the detailed investigation that will now begin, the CBI will probe the motive behind them accepting the money.
The High Court had asked the CBI to complete its preliminary investigation within 48 hours after handing over the probe to the agency. Later, the time limit to the CBI was extended to a month by the Supreme Court.
However, it ended on Monday. Though initial inputs suggested that the CBI may not file the FIR on Monday and seek more time, sources revealed that CBI bosses in Delhi asked the sleuths in Kolkata to expedite the process and file the FIR on Monday itself. "We had faith in the CBI. The probe is going in the right direction. We hope justice will be delivered," State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said.
Narada TV CEO Matthew Samuel also welcomed the move. "Truth will come out now. There was no conspiracy in conducting the sting operation as claimed by the TMC," he said. On the other hand, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will commence her tour of Odisha from Tuesday, where she will offer prayers at the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri and meet Rose Valley scam accused TMC Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay, who is in CBI custody in Bhubaneswar.
Sources revealed that there was a chance that the CM could meet her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik to discuss plans for a greater anti-BJP alliance in eastern India along with the RJD-JD(U) alliance of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar of Bihar.
The sources also said the regional parties are pushing for a larger alliance to deter the BJP behemoth. The alliance was prompted after the saffron party indicated a big push in West Bengal and Odisha during its recently-concluded National Executive meeting in Bhubaneswar.