The CBI on Monday booked as many as 12 senior Trinamool Congress leaders, including party MPs, MLAs, ministers and a senior IPS officer on charges of corruption in the Narada sting operation case.
The move is indication of the heating up of the ongoing political battle between the BJP-led Centre and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.
In the video sting carried out by web portal Narada News, the accused were purportedly seen taking money for favours ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections.
Putting up a brave front, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the BJP for carrying out vendetta politics. “It’s a political game and there is nothing to be worried about. We will fight it politically. Filing a FIR against someone doesn’t mean one is guilty,” she said.
A case of criminal conspiracy and corruption has been filed against TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy, Lok Sabha MPs, Sultan Ahmed, Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Aparupa Poddar.
Others named in the FIR include former state minister Madan Mitra, party MLA-Iqbal Ahmed, MP Prasun Banerjee, Subhendu Adhikari, state minister and city mayor, Sovan Chatterjee, state ministers-Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim and senior police officer, Syed Hussain Mirza.
A regular case was registered after the completion of preliminary enquiry (PE) by the agency. The PE was registered on directions of the Calcutta High Court.
Opposition parties in the state are on the offensive. “Today's development shows Trinamool is a party of Alibaba and 40 thieves. Twelve of their top leaders, besides an IPS officer, are accused in the CBI probe. This has besmirched Bengal's name across the country,” said state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
The state BJP president Dilip Ghosh went a step ahead and said that the filing of FIR was all but expected. "People of the state were waiting for this. The probe is proceeding in the right direction. The people's faith in the court and the CBI is increasing. We hope justice will prevail,” he said.
According to senior CPM leader and lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya, the "CBI would have filed the FIR much earlier. But TMC had gone to court and gave more time to the CBI. I am sure CBI is making watertight-cases against these people under vital sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act. This shows the big role that money plays in politics of Bengal and
the country. We hope there will be no political interference impeding
the CBI probe. Let there be a free inquiry. And let there be transparency in Indian politics.”
The TMC leadership alleged political vendetta by the BJP. "The timing of the FIRs has raised doubts in the mind of the people,” said TMC secretary general Partha Chattopadhyay, adding, “We will discuss it in the party. But it won't be proper to see it as a mere FIR. There is more than what meets the eye."
Banerjee and her party's leaders have all along claimed the Narada issue had been used by the ruling BJP to teach a lesson to the Trinamool for leading the protests against the Modi government’s demonetisation move.
