Narada sting case: CBI arrests 3 TMC leaders, ex-party leader, to file charge sheet

The CBI on Monday arrested three TMC leaders and a former party leader in connection with the Narada sting case, wherein politicians were purportedly caught taking money on camera, and will file a charge sheet against them and another accused, officials said.

The central agency arrested Trinamool Congress leaders Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and Madan Mitra as well as former party leader Sovan Chatterjee in Kolkata in connection with the case this morning, they said.

All four of them were ministers during the time of the alleged commission of the offence in 2014, they said.

IPS officer SMH Meerza, who is out on bail, is the fifth accused in the case.

Soon after the Central Bureau of Investigation made the arrests, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached the agency's Nizam Palace office in Kolkata demanding the release of the TMC leaders, reminiscent of her protest against the CBI''s move to question the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in 2019.

CBI sources said Banerjee's actions are akin to interference in the probe handed over to the agency by the Calcutta High Court.

"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 R C Joshi said in Delhi.

The charge sheet against the five accused persons, for whom prosecution sanction has been received, is being submitted, he said.

The CBI had approached West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar seeking sanction to prosecute Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee, the officials said.

Dhankar had granted sanction to prosecute all the four leaders on May 7, following which the CBI finalised its charge sheet and moved to arrest them, they said.

Hakim, Mukherjee and Mitra were re-elected as MLAs in the recently concluded West Bengal assembly polls, while Chatterjee, who left the TMC to join the BJP, has severed links with both parties.

The sting operation was purportedly conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014 wherein people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving "illegal gratification" from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours, the CBI has alleged.

The agency has alleged that Hakim was seen to have agreed to accept a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from the sting operator while Mitra and Mukherjee were caught on camera receiving Rs 5 lakh each.

Chatterjee was seen receiving Rs 4 lakh from the sting operator, it added.

According to the CBI, Meerza was also caught on camera receiving Rs 5 lakh from the operator.

The tapes were made public just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal.

The CBI had registered the case in the matter on April 16, 2017.