One of the CBI’s senior officials said in Kolkata on Tuesday that the agency is awaiting the approval of the Lok Sabha Speaker to prosecute four political leaders in the Narada sting case, including BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who was a Trinamool MP when the tapes were discovered.
Two Bengal ministers, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, as well as MLA Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee, were arrested on Monday in connection with the sting operation, which purportedly caught politicians accepting bribes on camera.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar recently gave his approval for the four leaders to be prosecuted, after which the agency completed its charge sheet and moved to arrest them.
According to Press Trust of India, the CBI has “sought permission from the Lok Sabha Speaker to prosecute Suvendu Adhikari, Saugata Roy, Prasun Banerjee, and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar,” who were all Trinamool MPs at the time the alleged operation was carried out.
“We have yet to receive a sanction in the matter,” he told PTI, adding that another political heavyweight, Mukul Roy, who left the Trinamool in 2017 to join the BJP, is not on the list.
Following Monday’s arrest, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed that the CBI had spared Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy because they had joined the BJP.
“It’s clear that Suvendu and Mukul were kept out of this… as they now happen to be BJP members. We, however, have faith in the judiciary and the truth will come out soon,” Mr Ghosh had alleged.
Another TMC MLA, Tapas Roy, echoed him, saying the BJP government at the Centre was seeking “exact revenge” after losing the recently concluded assembly elections.
Mathew Samuel, the editor of the Narada News portal, who claimed to have carried out the sting operation in 2014, had also inquired as to why Suvendu Adhikari had escaped punishment.
“I believe the investigation should be fair. This is the tip of the iceberg. We have to move against corruption. We have to face and challenge it,” Mr Samuel said.
Biman Bose, the chairman of the Left Front, and others have raised similar concerns.
State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, for one, called the CBI’s action “extremely unfortunate” at a time when Bengal is fighting the COVID-19 outbreak.
In March 2017, the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI investigation into the Narada sting operation.
Following that, the agency filed charges against 12 Trinamool leaders, including the four arrested, as well as an IPS officer.
