TMC leaders listed Narada case in poll papers, Suvendu, Mukul didn’t

Ruling Trinamool Congress leaders Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and Madan Mitra mentioned details of the Narada sting operation case in their affidavits to the Election Commission, while BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari only mentioned his case number and fellow MLA Mukul Roy skipped reference to the case altogether, The Indian Express has learnt while going through their nomination papers for the Assembly elections.

Former Trinamool leader and Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee has also been arrested in connection with the case.

A total of 13 names had come up in the Narada sting operation case and only five of them had been fielded the election.

In the section in the nomination form where a candidate had to list pending cases against him, if any, the three Trinamool heavyweights gave details of the Narada case that was investigated by CBI.

Apart from mentioning the case number, RC 0102017 A0010 dated 16/4/2017, the Trinamool leaders also detailed the IPC sections they were booked under – Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 7 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act), as well as sections 13 (1) (a), 13 (1) (d) and 13 (2) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of Prevention of Corruption Act. A brief description of the offence was also included.

However, in the affidavit filed by Adhikari, who won the prestige battle against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram and was later elected the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, there was neither any mention of the sections under which he was booked nor a brief description of the offence.

Roy, also the BJP national vice-president, made no mention of the case despite being named as one of the key accused. It wasn’t clear if he had been given a clean chit by the CBI or had simply chosen not to give details of the case. He wasn’t available for comments in the matter. In the alleged expose, several Trinamool ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen receiving cash from Mathew Samuel, the editor of Narada News who posed as a representative of a fictitious company, in exchange for promised favours.

The four Trinamool leaders and the former mayor were arrested on Monday. While a CBI Special court granted bail to the four in the evening, a division bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal, Chief Justice (Acting) and Justice Arijit Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court, put a stay on it later at night.