Twelve ministers in the Trinamool Congress regime in West Bengal are named as accused in the Narada sting case. It’s yet another bout between the BJP-ruled Centre and Mamata Banerjee feisty government.
KOLKATA: The who’s who of the Trinamool Congress have been named in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s FIR in the Narada scam case. Twelve are ministers in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet in addition to MPs and leaders of the party. Mamata Banerjee, who termed the sting operation as a ‘political conspiracy’, asserted the party will fight it politically.
The accused may be separately summoned for interrogation starting next week. If discrepancies are found in their statements, the accused may be arrested to facilitate further investigation as was done in the cases related to Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay and actor-turned-lawmaker Tapas Pal in the Rose Valley scam.
As a counter strategy, the Trinamool Congress decided in a closed door meeting on Wednesday that it will cooperate with the CBI and not challenge the FIR. The 12 accused were told by Trinamool leader and co-accused Mukul Roy to give similar statements with no discrepancies to the CBI so that the agency has no reason to arrest them, sources said.
Also, the accused were told to present themselves to CBI as soon as they are summoned so that the agency does not get a reason to issue arrest warrants against them. For this reason, they have been told to stay put in Kolkata.
Numerous scams and stings have rocked West Bengal since 2013, and public opinion has grown indifferent to yet another instance. At least that’s what the electoral results show. Despite the best efforts of the opposition to gain mileage from the Narada sting operation which became public just before the 2016 Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress rode back to victory with an increase in vote share and more seats in the Assembly.
However, the BJP in government at the Centre and in opposition in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress expects to be hounded by the CBI on behalf of the saffron party.
With seven municipalities going to the polls on May 14 and panchayat elections slated to take place in May 2018, the opposition parties including the Left, the BJP and even the Congress are hoping to gain some political mileage out of the Narada investigation.
FAQs
Who conducted the Narada sting operation?
The sting operation was conducted by Mathew Samuel, former managing editor of Tehelka magazine, over a period of two years. However, Samuel was unable to get it published in the magazine and used his footage on the Narada TV channel that he launched. The sting was released before the 2016 Assembly elections. Samuel’s earlier sting Operation West End in 2001 brought down the then BJP president Bangaru Laxman for taking a bribe to help defence contractors.
How was the operation carried out?
Mathew Samuel posed as an owner of a fictitious Chennai-based firm and offered huge amounts of money to secure favours from ministers, MPs and police officials. The Narada TV sting operation came out into the open on March 14 2016, just before the West Bengal Assembly elections that year. The Trinamool Congress claims that the sting was a political conspiracy by the BJP to topple the Mamata Banerjee government.
Who funded the Narada sting operation?
Mathew Samuel, in his statement, has claimed that Trinamool Congress MP Kanwar Deep Singh, owner of the firm Alchemist, funded the sting operation while he was working for Tehelka. However, K D Singh denied the allegation and said he took over the reins of the investigative journalism magazine (WHICH MAGAZINE?) a few months after Samuel quit. The Kolkata police have initiated a criminal case against Singh for allegedly duping investors.
How did the Narada case get into the courts?
The Calcutta High Court responded to a public interest litigation (PIL) and ordered an inquiry by the CBI into the sting operation while disregarding the state’s plea for a CID inquiry. The West Bengal government appealed against a CBI inquiry in the Supreme Court but the apex court upheld the lower court’s order. It also increased the time limit given to the central agency to complete the preliminary probe from a mere 48 hours to a month. That time limit ended on April 18 and the agency registered an FIR against 13 people accused in the case. They face cases under Section 13 and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy).
The Narada accused
1. Mukul Roy: Trinamool Congress vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP
2. Madan Mitra: Former sports minister who is out on bail in the Saradha scam case
3. Firhad Hakim: Minister for urban development and municipal affairs
4. Subrata Mukherjee: Public heath, panchayat and rural development minister
5. Suvendu Adhikari: Transport minister
6. Sovan Chatterjee: Kolkata mayor
7. Iqbal Ahmed: Kolkata deputy mayor
8. Sougata Roy: Lok Sabha MP, former minister of state for urban development
9. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar: Lok Sabha MP
10. Sultan Ahmed: Lok Sabha MP and former minister of state for tourism
11. Saiyaad Hussain Mirza: Former Burdwan district SP
12. Prasun Banerjee: Lok Sabha MP and Arjuna Award winning footballer
13. Apurva Poddar: Lok Sabha MP
Mamata’s scam-tainted TMC regime
Mamata Banerjee’s regime in West Bengal has been rocked by two major scams apart from the Narada sting operation. But while the opponents got something to crow about, it did not help them politically in the 2016 Assembly elections.
Saradha chit fund scam
The Rs 30,000 crore chit fund scam affected over 17 lakh people in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Tripura before collapsing in April 2013. TMC Rajya Sabha MPs Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose, and West Bengal transport minister Madan Mitra were arrested. Saradha owner Sudipta Sen was sentenced to three years in jail. Reports indicate, some 210 depositors, agents and executives allegedly committed suicide following the scam.
Rose Valley scam
Another Rs 17,000 chit fund scam hit investors in West Bengal and Tripura. TMC’s Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay and actor-turned-lawmaker Tapas Pal were arrested by the CBI in December 2016. Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu is in jail since March 23, 2015. The case took an ugly turn in January 2017 when footage showed Kundu’s wife Subhra exiting a Delhi hotel with Enforcement Directorate officer Manoj Kumar, who was probing the case.