News Analysis India

Tag: Narada scam

  • Narada case: CM Mamata Banerjee, others file fresh pleas before Calcutta HC for submitting affidavits

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister Malay Ghatak and the state government on Monday filed fresh applications before the Calcutta High Court for submitting affidavits before it in connection with the CBI’s plea for transfer of the Narada sting tapes case, as per a direction of the Supreme Court.

    Annulling the high court’s June 9 order refusing to take reply-affidavits of the state, the chief minister and the law minister, the apex court had on June 25 asked a five-judge bench of the high court to decide afresh their pleas before making a decision on the CBI petition seeking transfer of the case.

    The investigating agency has sought transfer of the Narada case from the special CBI court here to the high court.

    The next hearing of the Narada sting tapes case in the five-judge bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal is scheduled on Tuesday.

    ALSO READ | Bengal Governor corrupt, named in the chargesheet of 1996 Hawala Jain case, claims CM Mamata Banerjee

    Following the apex court’s order, the state government, the chief minister and the law minister filed fresh applications on Monday for filing affidavits.

    Three appeals including one by the state government were filed before the Supreme Court challenging the high court’s denial for filing of affidavits by Banerjee and Ghatak in their role on the day of arrest of West Bengal ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee on May 17 by the CBI in the Narada sting case.

    In its transfer application of the Narada case from the special CBI court here to the high court, the investigating agency has made the chief minister and the law minister parties in the matter.

    The probe agency claimed that while the chief minister had sat on a dharna at the CBI office here soon after the arrest of the four accused, Ghatak had been present at the Banskhall Court premises during the virtual hearing of the case before the special CBI court there on May 17.

    The five-judge bench of the high court, comprising ACJ Bindal and justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee, had granted interim bail on May 28 to the four Narada scam accused.

    The special CBI court had granted them bail on May 17 itself, but the order was stayed by the high court, which remanded them to judicial custody They had been placed under house arrest on May 21 by the high court, modifying its earlier order of stay on the bail.

    The Narada sting operation was conducted by journalist Mathew Samuel of Narada News, a web portal, in 2014 wherein some people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours At that time, the four arrested politicians were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government.

    The sting operation was made public ahead of the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal.

  • SC to hear pleas of CM Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister in Narada bribery case on June 25

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday decided to hear on June 25 the appeals of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state Law Minister Moloy Ghatak against the June 9 order of the Calcutta High Court which had refused to take on record their affidavits on the CBI’s transfer plea related to the Narada scam case.

    The appeals, initially listed before a vacation bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, were referred to another bench by Chief Justice N V Ramana during the day itself after Justice Bose recused from the hearing without citing any reason.

    A bench of Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheswari, to which the cases were referred, took up the matter in the afternoon.

    At outset, Justice Saran said that the matters are fresh for the bench and they needed to go through the files before the hearing.

    On being pointed out that earlier the top court had requested the high court to defer the hearing till it decides the appeals, the bench said that it would pass the same order urging the high court to postpone the scheduled hearing there on June 23 and wait for two more days.

    The bench then enquired from Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, and senior Advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Vikas Singh, whether they will be able to conclude the arguments on Friday.

    The lawyers answered in the affirmative.

    “The Supreme Court had noted earlier on June 18 that the High Court may not take up the matter on 21 and 22. Since the matter could not be taken up today, we hope the High Court will not take up the matter on any date prior to the 25th”, the bench said in the order.

    The top court was scheduled to hear three appeals including that of the state government challenging the high court’s denial for filing of affidavits by Banerjee and Ghatak in their role on the day of arrest of four Trinamool Congress leaders on May 17 by CBI in the case.

    It has been alleged that the state ruling party leaders played a key role in stopping the CBI from performing its legal duty after arresting four leaders in the case.

    Initially, the state government and the law minister had moved the top court with their appeals and later the chief minister filed her plea against the June 9 order of the high court.

    The top court on June 18 had requested the high court to hear the case a day after the apex court considered the appeals of the state government and Ghatak against the order.

    On June 9, a five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, hearing CBI’s application for transfer of the Narada sting tape case from the special CBI court to the high court, had said it will decide later on considering the affidavits by Banerjee and Ghatak on their respective roles on the day of the arrest of four leaders in connection with the case.

    Senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Vikas Singh, appearing for Ghatak and the state government, had said it was necessary to bring on record of the high court the affidavits as they deal with the roles of the persons concerned on May 17.

    The law minister was attending the cabinet meeting and was not in the court premises at the time of hearing, Dwivedi had said, adding that even the CBI officials were not there on the spot as the lawyer for the agency addressed the court virtually.

    The high court, which on June 9 decided to consider later the affidavits of Banerjee and Ghatak, was urged by the Solicitor General that the affidavits cannot be accepted on the ground of delay as they were filed after the completion of his arguments.

    The CBI, which has filed an application seeking transfer of the Narada sting tape case from the special CBI court to the high court, has made the chief minister and the law minister parties in its plea there.

    It had claimed that while the chief minister had sat on a dharna at the CBI office in Kolkata soon after the arrest of the four accused, Ghatak had been present at the Banshall Court premises during the virtual hearing of the case before the special CBI court there on May 17.

    Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI which is investigating the Narada sting tape case on a 2017 order of the high court.

    The five-judge bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee, had adjourned the hearing in the matter.

    The bench had granted interim bail on May 28 to the four accused.

    The special CBI court had granted them bail on May 17 itself, but the order was stayed by the high court, which remanded them to judicial custody.

    They had been placed under house arrest on May 21 by the high court, modifying its earlier order of stay on the bail.

    The Narada sting operation was conducted by journalist Mathew Samuel of Narada News, a web portal, in 2014 wherein some people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.

    At that time, the four arrested politicians were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government.

    The sting operation was made public ahead of the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal.

  • SC defers Narada hearing to June 25, requests Calcutta HC not to conduct hearing till then

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would take up the petition filed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the Calcutta High Court order, which had denied her to file an affidavit in the Narada sting case for hearing on June 25.

    A division bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Vineet Saran and also comprising Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, also requested the five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, which is hearing the Narada sting case, to also not conduct any hearing before June 25, Friday, when it will take up the matter.

    The Supreme Court also said, “We hope the Calcutta High Court will not take up the hearing prior to June 25.”

    West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had yesterday knocked the doors of the Supreme Court in connection with the Narada sting case, after the Calcutta High Court had denied her to file an affidavit in the case.

    She was made a party to the case when the four former TMC (Trinamool Congress) ministers were arrested by the CBI and she had reached the CBI office.

  • Narada case: Judge questions Calcutta HC’s handling of interim bail grant

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI/KOLKATA : A sitting judge of Calcutta High Court wrote a letter to the all judges of court questioning the handling of the interim bail order of three Trinamool Congress MLAs and the CBI’s plea challenging the order. The letter comes days after the Supreme Court too had criticised the High Court over its handling of the case.

    “Our conduct is unbecoming of the majesty the High Court commands. We have been reduced to a mockery. As such, I am requesting all of us to salvage the situation by taking such steps, including convening a Full Court, if necessary, for the purpose of re-affirming sanctity of our rules and our unwritten code of conduct,” the judge wrote in the letter.

    Justice Sinha alleges that the CBI’s e-mail asking for the Narada case to be transferred out of Bengal was wrongly listed by the Calcutta High Court before a division bench comprising two judges instead of a single judge.  The letter dated May 24, mentioned a series of questions on the procedural gaps in admitting the CBI’s plea.

    The judge also mentioned that the accused continued to be in custody though they had obtained bail from designated court. He also raised question on the procedure in assigning the CBI’s plea to a bench headed by the acting chief justice.

    “Whether the high court exercising power in the matter of transfer of a criminal case, at that stage, on its own initiative, could have passed the order for stay, is the second question,” he wrote.

    Justice Sinha wrote in his letter that the CBI’s transfer plea should have been heard by a single judge and should not have been treated as a writ petition as there was “no substantial question of law related to the constitution.”

  • File complaint against Bengal Guv Jagdeep Dhankar, can be prosecuted after his term is over: TMC MP

    Speaking to the media personnel on Sunday, Banerjee alleged that the West Bengal Governor has directly transferred the case (Narada) to CBI, which is against the Constitution.

  • West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee creating hurdles for CBI in its Narada sting operations probe: BJP

    Banerjee had rushed to the CBI office, shortly after state ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and TMC MLA Madan Mitra were arrested by the central agency.

  • West Bengal Governor gave nod on May 7 to CBI plea seeking sanction to prosecute three TMC MLAs

    By PTI
    KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar gave his assent to CBI’s request seeking sanction for prosecution of four political leaders, including three from the ruling TMC, in connection with the Narada sting case on May 7, two days after Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as chief minister for the third time, officials said on Monday.

    They said the CBI approached the governor’s office seeking permission to prosecute Trinamool Congress MLAs Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and Madan Mitra as well as former party leader Sovan Chatterjee in view of a 2004 Supreme Court judgement in which the top court had agreed that the governor could give sanction for prosecution.

    The officials said that the agency approached the governor’s office as the four were ministers in the previous government at time of the Narada sting case in which politicians were purportedly caught taking money on camera.

    They said that since the governor administers the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers, his or her office is the sanctioning authority.

    The officials said the CBI would also cite a judgement of the Supreme Court in a case related to former Madhya Pradesh ministers Rajender Kumar Singh and Bisahu Ram Yadav in which sanction to prosecution was given by the then governor.

    A complaint was made to the Lokayukta against them for having released 7.5 acres of land illegally and they had challenged their prosecution in the apex court.

    The top court in its judgement had said, “If, on these facts and circumstances, the governor cannot act in his own discretion, there would be a complete breakdown of the rule of law in as much as it would then be open for governments to refuse sanction in spite of overwhelming material showing that a prima facie case is made out.”

    “If, in cases where a prima facie case is clearly made out, sanction to prosecute high functionaries is refused or withheld, democracy itself will be at stake.It would then lead to a situation where people in power may break the law with impunity safe in the knowledge that they will not be prosecuted as the requisite sanction will not be granted,” he added.

    Hakim is the urban development minister in the present state government and Mukherjee holds the portfolio of panchayti raj and rural affairs. Mitra is an MLA and Chatterjee is an ex-MLA, who quit the TMC in 2019 to join the BJP but left the saffron party this year after he was not given a poll ticket.

    The officials said that all these leaders were arrested and chargesheeted in a crime that was allegedly committed in the previous tenure, and since all of them were ministers, the sanctioning authority was with the governor’s office.

    The sting operation was conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 wherein people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving “illegal gratification” from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours, the CBI has alleged.

    The agency has alleged that Hakim was purportedly seen to have agreed to accept a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from the sting operator, while Mitra and Mukherjee were caught on camera receiving Rs 5 lakh each. Chatterjee was purportedly seen receiving Rs 4 lakh from the sting operator, it added.

    The tapes were made public just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation on April 16, 2017.

  • Total anarchy: Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar slams TMC agitation after arrests of ministers, MLA

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Expressing concern over agitation by TMC workers outside the CBI office here and elsewhere in West Bengal after the arrest of two ministers and others in the Narada sting case, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday alleged that there is “total lawlessness and anarchy” in the state and the police and administration are in “silence” mode.

    The governor urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to contain the “explosive situation” and asked her to weigh the “repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism”. He also accused the state administration of allowing the “situation to drift” and “not taking any tangible action” against the agitators.

    Message @MamataOfficial “Total lawlessness & anarchy. Police and administration in silence mode. Hope you realize repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism.Time to reflect and contain this explosive situation that is worsening minute by minute.”
    — Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 17, 2021

    Taking to Twitter, Dhankhar said, “Message @MamataOfficial Total lawlessness & anarchy. Police and administration in silence mode. Hope you realize repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism. Time to reflect and contain this explosive situation that is worsening minute by minute.”

    Hundreds of TMC supporters launched a protest outside the CBI office here and threw water bottles and stones at the central force personnel who barricaded the CGO Complex in Nizam Palace where the central agency’s office is located.

    Holding party flags and shouting slogans against Dhankhar, a group of TMC activists demonstrated outside the two gates of Raj Bhavan here. “Invited attention @MamataOfficial on channels and in public domain I notice arson and pelting of stones at CBI office. Pathetic that Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police are just onlookers. Appeal to you to act and restore law and order,” the governor said.

    ALSO READ| Follow lockdown norms, will fight battle legally: TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee to protesting workers

    He asked the government and the state police to take all steps to maintain law and order. “Concerned at alarming situation. Call upon @MamataOfficial to follow constitutional norms & rule of law. Sad- situation is being allowed to drift with no tangible action by authorities,” Dhankhar said on the microblogging site.

    The central agency on Monday morning arrested state ministers Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra as well as former minister Sovan Chatterjee in connection with the Narada sting case in which politicians were purportedly caught taking money on camera.

    Officials said that the action comes as the central probe agency is likely to file its charge sheet in the case. Dhankhar had recently granted sanction to prosecute all the four leaders, following which the CBI finalised its charge sheet and moved to arrest them.

    The sting operation was purportedly conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 wherein some people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.

    ALSO READ| TMC workers protest outside CBI’s Kolkata office after arrest of ministers, MLA

    The tapes were made public just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March, 2017.

  • Follow lockdown norms, will fight battle legally: TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee to protesting workers

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday urged party supporters to follow the law and refrain from violating the lockdown norms as they demonstrated in various parts of West Bengal against the arrest of two state ministers and an MLA.

    Abhishek, a Lok Sabha MP who is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said his party will fight the battle legally as it has utmost faith in the judiciary. “I urge everyone to abide by the law and refrain from any activity that violates lockdown norms for the sake of the larger interest of Bengal and its people. We have utmost faith in the judiciary and the battle will be fought legally,” he tweeted.

    I urge everyone to abide by the law & refrain from any activity that violates lockdown norms for the sake of the larger interest of Bengal and its people.We have utmost faith in the judiciary & the battle will be fought legally.
    — Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) May 17, 2021

    Hundreds of TMC supporters gathered outside the CBI office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata and protested against the arrest of senior ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, and TMC MLA Madan Mitra in connection with the Narada sting operation case.

    The CBI also arrested former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee. At one point, the protest also turned violent with TMC supporters pelting stones and trying to breach the police barricade at the Nizam Palace complex’s main entrance.

    Protests were also held in other places in the city, including outside Raj Bhavan, and the districts with TMC workers blocking roads by burning tyres. West Bengal is at present under complete lockdown that began on Sunday in the wake of the rising COVID-19 cases.