Kolkata : The CBI has decided to take legal steps against the three MPs and also Suvendu Adhikary in connection with the Narada sting operation and also urged the present speaker of Lok Sabha Om Birla to grant them permission for filing charge-sheet. The CBI, next week, are also going to interrogate ten TMC leaders who were seen in the Narada sting video taking bribes. This doesn’t, however, didn’t include Mukul Roy. The CBI will take the voice samples of the leaders.
Sources in the CBI said that in 2016, the CBI first approached the then Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan seeking permission, to lodge an FIR ,but her office didn’t give any direction to CBI in this regard .
Since 2016, the Ethics Committee (EC) of the Lok Sabha has not convened a single meeting after they were entrusted with the responsibility to probe the Narada sting operation of 2016 involving bribery charges against Trinamool MPs . The operation was conducted in 2014.
A senior CBI officer, on condition of anonymity, said: ” We have already sent a letter to Speaker Om Birla seeking his permission . Once we get that, we will file the first charge-sheet in the Narada case, naming the accused.”
While the CPI-(M) dubs it as a collusion between the TMC and the BJP claiming that the the latter was intentionally delaying the process as they were not serious about taking any action against tainted TMC politicians, BJP leaders claimed that the CBI are doing their work seriously and law will take its own time.
Md Selim, CPI-(M) leader said: “Recently I heard that the CBI has again urged the Speaker for permission to file charge sheet against the Trinamool MPs. Once they file the charge sheet they need to take Governor’s sanction too. The agency have already showed slack on their investigation part earlier.”
Dilip Ghosh, state BJP president said: “Mamata Banerjee and her party leaders are frightened as the CBI has stepped up and are investigating all the accused and that’s why the TMC leaders are claiming it to be a political vendetta.”
The TMC has said that CBI and BJP are doing this to tarnish the image of the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal. They are using the CBI to threaten the TMC leaders. State chief minister and TMC supremo Miss Mamata Banerjee has said that she is ready to go to the CBI office anytime when she is called.
Partha Chatterjee, state parliamentary affairs minister, said: “The CBI is trying to frighten our leaders. But we have co-operated with them and will continue to do so. “
Narada sting operation
In 2014 , Matthew Samuel, CEO of Narada News conducted a sting operation posing as a businessman and was, in the tapes, seen offering money to Trinamool Congress leaders and the latter purportedly accepting that in lieu of favours. Some of the TMC leaders who were seen in the Narada sting operation include Sovan Chatterjee, Mukul Roy, Aparupa Poddar, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Madan Mitra, Suvedu Adhikary and the then district magistrate of Burdwan IPS SMH Mirza.
Amol Mukherjee, former principal of Presidency University said: “In West Bengal, the BJP has repeatedly targeted Trinamool Congress using the Narada sting operation and the Sarada chit fund case. If the BJP could use the CBI to arrest more leaders in both the scams before the 2021 state Assembly elections then they might increase their vote share in Bengal. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BJP secured 18 out of 42 seats and are eyeing on grabbing more seats in Bengal before the Assembly elections in 2021.”