New Delhi: In more trouble for the West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for permission to prosecute three of the party’s sitting MPs and one former MP in the Narada sting operation case.
“The agency has written to the Lok Sabha Speaker and it is waiting for his permission to prosecute three sitting MPs,” a CBI source told this agency but declined to reveal their names, Thursday. He said the agency has also sought permission to prosecute a former Trinamool MP.
Just before the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2016, Mathew Samuel, editor and managing director of Narada news portal, broadcast a sting video in which a number of Trinamool Congress leaders were allegedly seen taking money on camera.
The CBI lodged an FIR in April 2017 following a court order, naming 13 Trinamool leaders and has interrogated many of them. The purported footage was also sent for forensic examination. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing the money trail in the case.
It should be stated here that Wednesday, the CBI grilled Trinamool MP KD Singh, Mathew Samuel and former TMC leader Mukul Roy in the case. Roy, after quitting the TMC had joined the BJP in November 2017. He was former aide of Mamata Banerjee, and had a fall out with her in 2015 when his name cropped up in the Saradha scam as well as the Narada sting operation. Mukul Roy was later suspended from the party for six years.
Other sources stated that the four who the CBI wants to prosecute are MPs Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh and Prasun Banerjee. The former MP who is under the CBI radar is Suvendu Adhikari. He is now the Transport Minister in the West Bengal government.
The 73-year old Saugata Roy is an MP from Dum Dum, while Ghosh (59) represents the Barasat constituency. Prasun Banerjee (64) is an MP from Howrah. He was also the captain of the Indian football team who participated in the 1982 Asian Games.
Sources said if the Speaker clears the move the four leaders may be named by the agency in its chargesheet in the case.
Agencies