GOVERNOR ACCORDS PROSECUTION SANCTION TO CBI ON TMC LEADERS

NEW DELHI: West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has accorded prosecution sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against three Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs — Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim — and one former party leader Suvon Chatterjee in the 2016 Narada sting operation case, a development which will empower the central agency to file a charge sheet against all four of them, people familiar with the development said.

Mukherjee and Hakim are set to take oath as ministers in the Mamata Banarejee cabinet on Monday. Last week, Mitra won the assembly election from the Kamarhati seat in West Bengal.

Besides the governor’s sanction against the three TMC legislators and Chatterjee, now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) granted sanction against a 2004 batch promoted IPS officer SMH Mirza in the case. Mirza was arrested by CBI in September 2019.

TMC MP Saugata Roy said: “I cannot comment on it. It’s a legal matter”. The officials cited above said the central agency had sent a request against the four state leaders in January this year after completion of its investigation.

A statement issued by the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata on Sunday said: “Governor of West Bengal accorded sanction for prosecution in respect of Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Suvon Chatterjee, for the reason that all of them at the relevant time of commission of crime were holding the position of ministers in the government of West Bengal.”

The governor’s office added that he is the competent authority to accord prosecution sanction against ministers.