JOIN USTMC leaders mentioned Narada scam in their affidavits to EC. But did Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy?
Narada scam has rocked the political arena of West Bengal once again. The arrest of top Trinamool Congress leaders Madan Mitra, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and former BJP leader Sovan Chatterjee by the CBI has brought the 2016 controversy back into the light.
That it is happening after TMC won the state Assembly elections by a thumping majority, while BJP failed to cross the 100-seat mark adds more significance to the events unfolding.
And now, even the affidavits filed by the accused candidates to Election Commission are under the scanner.
It is common knowledge that a candidate who wishes to contest in an election has to mention the pending case against him or her in the nomination form if there is any.
According to a report by the Indian Express, while the three TMC leaders mentioned details about the Narada case in their affidavits, top BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari failed to do so. Suvendu mentioned just his case number and Mukul Roy skipped mentioning it altogether.
The TMC leaders mentioned the IPC sections they were booked under apart from giving the case numbers. But Suvendu, who won against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram, neither mentioned the sections nor gave a brief account of his offence. And Roy, national vice-president of the saffron party, did not mention it at all.
Read more: Narada scam comes back to haunt Bengal politics, and Mukul Roy
What is the Narada scam or Narada sting operation?
The sting operation was a series of secret tapes recorded by Mathew Samuel of Narada TV news channel in 2014. The tapes showed TMC ministers, leaders and an IPS officer taking money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.
Subrata Mukherjee, Sovan Chatterjee, Madan Mitra, Firhad Hakim, Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Prasun Banerjee were the leaders who were allegedly caught on camera. TMC turncoats and currently-BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari were also accused in the case.
MH Ahmed Mirza, a senior police officer, was the first accused in the case to be arrested in 2019.
Why Roy and Adhikari have not been arrested?
Samuel expressed surprise that the CBI has not arrested Adhikari yet. Regarding Roy not being arrested, he said that his is a different matter as there is no video evidence against him.
CBI Officials said on Tuesday that the central agency has found nothing "so far" against Roy, who switched from the TMC to the BJP, and Lok Sabha TMC member Aparupa Poddar, while its application seeking sanction to prosecute four others including Suvendu Adhikari was pending with the Lok Sabha Speaker for over two years.