News Analysis India

Tag: Narada Sting Tape

  • Narada case: West Bengal Minister Subrata Mukherjee released from hospital, in house arrest

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress heavyweight and senior West Bengal minister Subrata Mukherjee was on Tuesday discharged from a hospital here and returned home where he would be kept under house arrest in the Narada sting tape case till further orders of the Calcutta High Court.

    Mukherjee went to Presidency Correctional Home, where he was lodged before being admitted to the SSKM Hospital, to complete formalities, officials said.

    He then reached his Ballygunge residence in a Kolkata Police vehicle.

    He, minister Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee were arrested in the case on May 17 and they were taken to the correctional home after the Calcutta High Court stayed their bail granted by a CBI court on the same day.

    Chatterjee, Mukherjee and Mitra were later admitted to the hospital after their health condition deteriorated.

    Hakim had been shifted to a healthcare facility in the correctional home after he developed fever.

    The Calcutta High Court on May 21 ordered their shifting to house arrest from jail incarceration.

    However, they will continue to remain in judicial custody.

    Only Hakim was sent home on that day while others remained in the hospital.

    Chatterjee, who had quit the party to join the BJP only to leave it before the recently concluded assembly election, was discharged from the hospital late on Saturday evening on personal risk bond.

    Mitra is still undergoing treatment in the hospital.

    The 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 tape case: Calcutta HC asks CBI to clarify position over chargesheet filing

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the CBI to clarify its position through an affidavit on the filing of chargesheet in the Narada sting tape case in which people resembling Trinamool Congress MP, ministers and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money in lieu of promised favours.

    A division bench presided over by Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan directed that the matter would be taken up for hearing two weeks hence, by which time the CBI will be required to file the affidavit.

    The direction was passed after additional advocate general Abhratosh Majumdar submitted that the CBI has not so far applied to the Assembly Speaker for sanction to prosecute anyone in connection with the Narada sting tapes case.

    Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, appearing for the petitioner in connection with a PIL seeking speedy completion of investigation and trial in the case, submitted that permission is not required from the Speaker of the state Assembly since the alleged acceptance of money had nothing to do with the official discharge of duties of any member accused in the case.

    The CBI counsel, however, stated that permission of the Speaker of the House was necessary before submission of the chargesheet.

    Hearing all the parties, the division bench asked the CBI lawyer to take instructions from the investigating agency and submit an affidavit clarifying its position on the matter.