‘Videos, witnesses show four leaders took cash’

NEW DELHI: Videos made during the sting operation, voice samples, and statements from witnesses ostensibly confirmed that Trinamool Congress leaders Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee took cash from journalist Mathew Samuel (who was pretending to be a businessman seeking to further his interests) in 2014, according to details of probe and chargesheet shared with HT by two CBI officials.

The four were arrested on Monday by the federal agency. TMC has raised questions about the lack of action against Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari, formerly with the party, who have since defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party, but CBI officials said there was no clear evidence against the former, and that the agency is awaiting the Lok Sabha speaker’s permission, sought in 2019 to proceed against him. CBI began probing the sting, which came to light in 2016 just ahead of the assembly elections in the state, in April 2017 by registering an FIR against Mukul Roy (now a BJP vice president), Madan Mitra, Sultan Ahmed, Iqbal Ahmed, Firhad Hakim, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Banerjee, Suvendu Adhikari (now in the BJP and the leader of the Opposition in West Bengal), Sovan Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee, IPS officer SMH Meerza, and Aparupa Poddar.

The investigation was around whether, as shown in the sting, these people took bribes from Samuel, who approached them in 2014 posing as Santosh Shankaran, representative of M/s Impex Consultancy, Chennai, a fictitious firm, seeking favours to further the business interests of the company in the state.