News Analysis India

Tag: Narada Sting case

  • Supreme Court to hear plea of Mamata govt on June 22 on filing of affidavits in Narada sting case

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday decided to hear on June 22 the appeals against Calcutta High Court’s denial for filing of affidavits by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Law Minister Moloy Ghatak on their role on the day of arrest of four leaders on May 17 by the CBI in connection with the Narada sting tape case.

    A vacation bench of justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian, meanwhile, requested the high court not to hear the case on Monday but a day after the apex court considers the appeals of the state government and Ghatak against the order.

    “List on Tuesday. Mr Solicitor General (Tushar Mehta) has put in appearance. The copy of the special leave petitions (SLPs) be served ion him. In the meantime, we hope that the High Court defers the hearing scheduled on Monday before it to Wednesday,” the bench said in 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 the 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 appeared for the law minister and the state government and said it was necessary to bring on record the affidavits of the high court 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 said, adding that even the CBI officials were not there on the spot as the lawyer for the agency addressed the court virtually.

    It has been alleged that the state ruling party leaders played key role in stopping CBI from performing its legal duty after arresting four leaders on May 17 in the case.

    “You may not be partly correct. It was stated that he (law minister) was in court,” the bench observed.

    “The CBI is an agency which aims to find the truth. They were themselves in CBI office and addressed the court virtually. They do not know as to what happened in the court. The law minister is yet to address court on this,” Dwivedi said.

    Singh said that under the rules there is a right to file affidavits and, moreover, CBI filed as many as three affidavits and did not take the permission of the court.

    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 and fixed the case for further hearing on Monday.

    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.

  • Narada sting case: Arrested TMC MLA, former party leader admitted to Kolkata hospital

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal minister Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee, who were arrested by the CBI in the Narada sting case, were admitted to a hospital here on Tuesday after medical complaints, officials said.

    Another TMC minister Firhad Hakim, who was also apprehended by the central agency in the case, was shifted to a health facility in Presidency Correctional Home after he developed fever in the morning, they said.

    Mitra, who is in a post-Covid recovery stage and has several comorbidities like severe diabetes, while Chatterjee, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, besides diabetes, were admitted to the state-run SSKM Hospital early on Tuesday as both the politicians developed breathing problems.

    Mukherjee was initially taken to the hospital early this morning and brought back to the correctional home after completion of check-up as he did not wish to be admitted there, an official of the medical facility said.

    The 76-year-old minister was again taken to the hospital later in the day and admitted to the facility as he too developed breathing problems.

    “Chatterjee and Mitra complained of breathlessness at around 3 am, following which they were brought to the hospital. Both have been kept on oxygen support at the Woodburn Block of the SSKM Hospital. They are stable now,” the official of the state-run facility told PTI.

    Chest X-Rays were conducted on Mitra and Chatterjee while Mukherjee, who is also in the same block, is on nebuliser, he said adding that RT-PCR tests were also conducted on them to ascertain Covid-19 infection.

    Following admission of the leaders, the hospital authorities formed a medical board to supervise their health conditions.

    “The board comprises senior doctors of the medicine and chest department. They will be keeping a tab on the leaders 24X7,” he said.

    Following their admission to the hospital, a posse of Kolkata Police personnel has been deployed there.

    Family members of the three arrested political leaders went to the hospital to meet them.

    The four were apprehended on Monday morning.

    The Calcutta High Court had stayed a special CBI court’s decision to grant bail to the four who were arrested and charge-sheeted by the agency in the Narada sting tape case.

    A division bench said it deemed it appropriate to stay the special court’s order and directed that the accused persons shall be “treated to be in judicial custody till further orders”.

    The sting operation was conducted by 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.

    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.

  • Narada row: Kolkata High Court stays bail order of two Trinamool ministers, Bengal MLA; Opposition hits out at Modi government

    By Online Desk
    KOLKATA: In late night hearing, amidst raging coronavirus pandemic, Kolkata High Court on Monday stayed order granting bail to the four accused, TMC’s two ministers, one MLA and former TMC minister, after the CBI moved the higher platform of the state’s judiciary challenging the lower court’s order.

    The High Court said it would hear the matter on Wednesday and till then the four accused, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukharkjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, will be in judicial custody.

    Sources said the four will be taken to Alipore Presidency jail.  

    Earlier, TMC supporters held demonstrations defying lockdown norms in various places, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered to court arrest protesting detention of two West Bengal ministers in the Narada case by CBI.

    Later, Special CBI court judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former minister Sovan Chatterjee after hearing their lawyers and the counsel for the agency, lawyer Anindya Raut said.

    The high court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation on April 16, 2017.

    The agency submitted its charge sheet in the special court against the four, besides IPS officer SMH Meerza who is already out on bail.

    The Trinamool Congress (TMC) accused the BJP-run Centre of using the CBI for political vendetta due to the saffron party’s recent loss in the assembly election, after the agency arrested the four leaders, who were allegedly caught on camera while taking bribes in the 2014 sting by a news channel.

    The CBI office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata became the latest political battleground in the state as chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived along with the kin of these politicians and demanded that she also be arrested while angry protestors gathered at the site, defying the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel.

    In New Delhi, the CBI spokesman, R C Joshi, said the agency “today arrested four then (former) ministers, the government of West Bengal in a case related to the Narada sting operation. it was alleged that then public servants were caught on camera while receiving illegal gratification from the sting operator”.

    During a virtual hearing, where the agency submitted its charge sheet, Special CBI judge Anupam Mukherjee granted bail to all four after hearing their lawyers and the counsel for the agency, lawyer Anindya Raut said.

    Soon after, the central agency moved a division bench of Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta HC Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee seeking cancellation of the bail.

    The division bench said it deemed it appropriate to stay the special court’s order and direct that the “accused person shall be treated to be in judicial custody till further orders”.

    The CBI was represented in the high court by Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta.

    On a day of fast-paced events, Banerjee sat on a dharna from 11 AM to around 5 PM demanding the release of the TMC leaders, reminiscent of her protest against the CBI’s move to question the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in 2019 in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam case.

    The CBI officials said Banerjee’s actions are akin to interference in the probe handed over to the agency by the Calcutta High Court.

    As the news spread, hundreds of TMC supporters gathered defying the ongoing lockdown, raised slogans against the BJP-led NDA government and clashed with security personnel.

    The agitators also burnt tyres and blocked roads in several other parts of the state, including Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts.

    Taking note of the widespread protests across the state, state governor Jagdeep Dhankhar urged the chief minister to contain the “explosive situation” and asked her to weigh the “repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism”.

    The CBI had approached the West Bengal Governor seeking sanction to prosecute Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee, the officials said, adding the sanction was received on May 7, following which the CBI finalised its charge sheet and moved to arrest them.

    The case pertains to a purported sting operation conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 in which TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were purportedly seen receiving “illegal gratification” from representatives of a fictitious company for favours, the CBI has alleged.

    The agency has alleged that Hakim was 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 seen receiving Rs 4 lakh from the sting operator, it added.

    The tapes became public just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal but had no impact on the poll results and Banerjee returned as the chief minister of the state.

    The CBI had named 13 persons in the FIR registered on April 16, 2017, which included four TMC leaders-Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee, who held the position of ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government in 2014.

    Hakim, Mukherjee and Mitra were re-elected as MLAs in the recently concluded West Bengal assembly polls, while Chatterjee, who left the TMC to join the BJP, has severed links with both parties.

    The sanction to prosecute the remaining eight FIR accused, all the then Members of Parliament, has not been accorded yet, officials said.

    The sanction for prosecution by the governor was questioned by the West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee who contended that the arrests were illegal.

    “I have not received any letter from the CBI nor has anybody sought any permission from me as per the protocol,” he said.

    “I do not know for what unknown reason they went to the governor and sought his sanction. This sanction is absolutely illegal and arresting anyone on the basis of this sanction is also illegal,” Banerjee claimed.

    Reacting to the arrests, TMC spokesman Kunal Ghosh claimed that the CBI action was a vengeful act and a fallout of the BJP’s loss in the West Bengal assembly elections.

    BJP state president Dilip Ghosh condemned the protests by TMC workers and said the agitation, amid the COVID-19 lockdown, only shows that they have no respect for the law of the land.

    Left Front Chairman Biman Bose in a statement also said the central investigating agency did not take any effective step in all these years and questioned why other politicians tainted in same Narada scam and currently in BJP were let off.

    “The Narada issue could have been addressed much earlier, but that was not done. Instead at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented devastation, the CBI action is nothing but a cover up of colossal failure” of the ruling party at Centre, the CPIM-led front said.

    Stating that tackling the Covid-19 pandemic remained the most important task before the country, before the state at present, Bose said “TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee should keep in mind she definitely got the anti-BJP mandate of the people of the state she should remember people did not support the corruption and autocratic practices of her party leaders.”

    “Left front believes to prevent a dangerous force like BJP coming to power, TMC should stop giving indulgence to corrupt people. We strongly oppose the conspiracy of BJP when fighting corona pandemic on an urgent basis should be our top priority,” the statement said.

    Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Ashwani Kumar on Monday said, “The imprint of partisan politics is writ large in the blatant abuse of prosecutorial processes by the CBI against political adversaries of the ruling BJP.”

    Kumar said detention of the accused militates against recent judgments of the Supreme Court that scoffs at routine incarceration of political activists.

    “The insistence by the CBI on detaining the accused who are public men of high standing and not expected to tamper with the course of justice, is clearly an abuse of authority,” he asserted.

    The former law minister added that depriving the citizens of their fundamental liberties is clearly against the first principles of the country’s libertarian constitution.

    “Bail and not jail is the fundamental tenet of our criminal and libertarian jurisprudence. The CBI’s insistence on custody of the accused is therefore, wholly unsustainable in law. The manner of exercise of power of law enforcement in a democracy is accountable to constitutional imperatives. And it is important that justice is not only done but is also seen to be done,” he said.

    (With PTI and ENS inputs)

  • Narada sting case: Two Bengal ministers, TMC MLA taken to CBI office in Kolkata

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested three newly elected Trinamool Congress MLAs, including two ministers, and former TMC minister and mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in connection with the Narada sting operation case which was performed in 2014 and released a month before the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal. The central agency will submit the chargesheet in Narada sting operation case on Monday.

    Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, a veteran in Bengal’s politics, urban development and transport minister Firhad Hakim, who is also an administrator of the KMC, TMC MLA from Kamarhati, North 24 Parganas, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, former TMC minister who joined the BJP and later resigned, have been arrested on non-bailable charges.

    WB CM Mamata Banerjee arrived CBI’s Nizam Palace where two TMC ministers and one MLA arrested in Narada sting operation case. @NewIndianXpress @gsvasu_TNIE @khogensingh1
    — Pranab Mondal (@PranabM29940593) May 17, 2021

    While being taken away from his residence, Hakim said he was being arrested in connection with the Narada case and he would fight against the CBI in the court of law.

    The TMC alleged the arrests is a fallout of BJP’s debacle in the recently concluded Assembly elections. ‘’The central agency’s act clearly reflects BJP’s politics of revenge. They failed to combat politically with the TMC in the elections and are now using the central agency,’’ said TMC MP and spokesperson Saugata Roy.

    The ruling party alleged the CBI did not take the permission of the Speaker of the Assembly before arresting the three MLAs. ‘’The CBI did not communicate with me and seek my permission to arrest the MLAs. I received no letter from the central agency,’’ said Speaker Biman Banerjee.

    Sources in the CBI said there was a provision in the law that an MLA can be arrested after getting an approval from the governor.

    The CBI, however, is yet to take step against Suvendu Adhikari, BJP’s Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, and the saffron camp’s national vice president Mukul Roy. Both the defectors have been named in the FIR.