The Narada Scam: Everything You Need To Know About Narada Sting Operation

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Four ministers, Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chattopadhyay, were arrested by the CBI in the Narada scam case.
• The decision comes just days after Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar granted the CBI permission to file a chargesheet against the four accused and sanctioned action against them.
• When the Narada sting operation allegedly revealed them taking money, they were all state ministers. The tapes were made public in advance of the 2016 state Assembly elections.

What is Narada Scam Case

Narada news founder Mathew Samuel ran a sting operation in West Bengal for over two years called the Narada Scam Case. It was conducted in 2014 for the news magazine ‘Tehelka’ and released months before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections on a private news website called ‘Narada News’.

Samuel is Tehelka's former managing editor.He created a fictitious company called Impex Consultancy Solutions and approached many TMC ministers, MPs, and representatives, asking for favours in exchange for money as part of the operation.

TMC MPs Mukul Roy, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, PrasunBannerjee, Suvendu Adhikari, Aparupa Poddar, and Sultan Ahmad (who died in 2017), as well as state ministers Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, and Iqbal Ahmed, were seen accepting alleged bribes in the form of wads of cash in exchange for extending unofficial favoursin the 52-hour footage captured by Samuel and his colleague Angel Abraham.

Further, HMS Mirza, an IPS officer who has since been suspended now, was also seen taking money from Samuel. Also, Shanku Deb Panda, the TMC's leader, was seen demanding shares in Samuel's fictitious company in return for promised favours.

While Mukul Roy (now the BJP's national vice-president) was not seen accepting cash in the video. Although, he was seen asking Samuel to come to his party office with the promised money. Suvendu Adhikari is now a BJP official and the state Assembly's Leader of the Opposition. Sovan Chatterjee joined the BJP in 2019 but left the party earlier this year after being refused a seat for the Assembly elections. Panda has also joined the BJP.

Samuel stated that K. D. Singh, TMC Rajya Sabha MP and majority owner of Tehelka, was aware of the operation and financed it. According to Samuel, the operation's budget was originally set at ₹2,500,000 but was later raised to ₹8,000,000. K.D. Singh, on the other hand, denied any involvement in the sting operation.

The state government began its own investigation, and Samuel was charged under several sections of the IPC, including 469 (forgery to harm reputation), 500 (defamation), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), and so on. The High Court stayed the state investigation for an indefinite period of time on August 5, 2016, stating that the police cannot conduct a separate investigation with a court-monitored investigation.

The case has also been investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) formisappropriation of public funds in accordance with the Anti-Corruption Act.

Further Details

• On March 17, 2017, the Calcutta High Court directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary investigation and send a report within 72 hours of taking into custody the equipment used in the Narada sting operation and forensic reports from the court-appointed committee. The court also ordered the CBI to investigate whether the accused leaders took the money. According to the court, depending on the outcome of the inquiry, the CBI should file a FIR and continue the investigation.

• The TMC challenged the high court order in a special leave appeal to the Supreme Court.

• On March 21, 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the high court's decision but loosened the deadline for the investigation's conclusion. The Supreme Court gave the CBI one month to conduct its preliminary investigation.

• On April 17, 2017, the CBI filed a case under Indian Penal Code section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 sections 7 & 13(2) r/w 13(1) (a) & (d). The investigation revealed prima facie material for the registration of a routine event, according to the department (FIR). Regarding this, a large number of Congress and Left staff took to the streets, demanding the immediate detention of all TMC leaders and ministers seen in the sting videos.

• The CBI began an investigation, and many of the suspects were interrogated, but no arrests were made.
• Mukul Roy resigned from the TMC in September 2017. For anti-party behaviour, he was expelled from the party for six years. In October of 2017, he also resigned from the Rajya Sabha. In November, he joined the BJP. Roy was named as the BJP's national vice-president in September 2020.
• TMC chief Iqbal Ahmed died of a heart attack in Kolkata in September 2017. Mamata Banerjee blamed the CBI for his death, claiming the agency placed him under a lot of stress.
• Within weeks of receiving the CBI's request in February 2020, the Lok Sabha secretariat sought the Union law ministry's opinion on a request by the CBI for permission to prosecute three sitting Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs accused in the Narada sting operation case, senior officials at the Lower House said.
• A parallel investigation into the Narada sting case has been launched by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
• Five TMC leaders received notifications from the ED in August 2020, and suspended IPS officer Mirza was summoned. Lok Sabha members Saugata Roy and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, former Lok Sabha member Aparupa Poddar, then-minister Suvendu Adhikari, and TMC chief Ratna Chatterjee, who is estranged from former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who is an accused in the case, were among the TMC leaders.
• In December of 2020, Suvendu Adhikari joined the BJP. He ran for the assembly in East Midnapore and defeated Mamata Banerjee. The BJP was supposed to win at least 200 seats in the assembly and unseat the TMC, but the latter returned to power with 213 seats. On the 2nd of May, the results were published.
• Sovan Chatterjee joined the BJP before the assembly elections, but left due to disagreements with the leadership.
• Ratna Chatterjee ran for the TMC and won the Behala East seat, defeating the BJP candidate.

Why are we discussing it now

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had granted prosecution permission to the CBI against three TMC MLAs, Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, and Firhad Hakim, as well as former party leader Sovan Chatterjee, according to a statement released by Raj Bhawan on May 9, 2021. The department was then able to file a charge sheet against the four. Mukherjee and Hakim were sworn in as ministers on May 10.

According to a statement released by Raj Bhavan in Kolkata, the Governor of West Bengal granted permission for prosecution in the case of Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra, and Suvon Chatterjee, since all of them were ministers in the West Bengal government at the time of the crime.

A controversy/ dispute has erupted over the governor's use of the interregnum between two governments to grant his consent; under normal circumstances, the speaker of the assembly would have been required.

“To file a charge sheet against a sitting member of the house, the CBI must obtain permission from the assembly speaker. It was not completed. I'm not sure under what clause or with what intent the governor granted such permission. This is anti-democratic,” said assembly speaker Biman Banerjee.

The three TMC leaders, as well as Sovan Chatterjee, were arrested on the morning of May 17 amid widespread TMC protests across Bengal.

On May 21, Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal of the Calcutta High Court Refuses Interim Bail To TMC Leaders In Narada Scam Case recently stated that "Legal Issues Can't Be Raised And Settled In Streets" and Refused Interim Bail To TMC Leaders In Narada Scam Case.

The Acting Chief Justice noted in his order that the arguments in the petitions filed by TMC members seeking to have the High Court's order staying the trial court's bail recalled were progressing.

One of the accused's lawyers has yet to complete his arguments. The CBI has yet to make a decision.

As a result, Justice Bindal stated that finding a prima facie case for interim bail was "premature," especially when cases are heard on a daily basis. The order stated that "the hoped-for interim relief is in the essence of final relief." On May 17, the High Court stayed the bail granted by the Special CBI Court in Kolkata to four Trinamool Congress leaders.