Standoff as Mamata’s ministers held by CBI
KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested two senior West Bengal ministers, a legislator and a former Kolkata mayor on charges of bribery and corruption, triggering fierce protests by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and a six-hour agitation by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
A special CBI local court granted bail to all four accused -- urban development minister Firhad Hakim, panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee -- but the Calcutta high court stayed the order late on Monday. The case will be next heard on Wednesday.
The four leaders were arrested from their residences in the morning and charged under Section 120b of the Indian Penal Code (criminal conspiracy) and sections 7 and 13(1)(a) 13(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act for charges related to the 2016 Narada sting operation bribery case.
Shortly afterwards, Banerjee rushed to the CBI’s office at Nizam Palace in south Kolkata and left after nearly six hours. “Mamata told CBI officials that she should also be arrested,” said a TMC leader aware of the developments.
The case pertains to a twoyear-long sting operation whose videos were uploaded months ahead of the 2016 assembly elections. The sting, conducted by online news portal Narada News, purportedly caught several senior TMC leaders accepting
money in exchange for alleged favours to a fictitious company.
“The CBI has today arrested four then (former) ministers, 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,” CBI spokesperson RC Joshi said in Delhi.
TMC alleged that CBI was acting on orders by the BJP, which
recently lost assembly elections in West Bengal to Banerjee’s party. TMC won 213 seats and BJP could only manage 77.
TMC pointed out that two key people shown in the sting -party vice-president Mukul Roy and Bengal leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari -- had switched to the BJP and weren’t among those arrested on Monday.
“We condemn this. The BJP is not being able to accept the humiliating defeat and hence trying to take revenge. Why isn’t Mukul Roy, vice president of BJP, being arrested? He was also seen in the Narada sting operation,” said Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson.
Roy moved to BJP in 2017 while Adhikari switched in December 2020.