The enforcement directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case in the Narada 'sting' where a number of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, including MPs and ministers, were allegedly caught on camera taking money.
With a CBI probe already in progress, this brings another central agency into the picture to probe the alleged scam.
A case has been registered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a CBI FIR, which incriminates around 13 TMC leaders, including members of parliament and West Bengal state legislature.
The ED will probe the 'proceeds of crime' and officials indicated that it would soon issue summonses to the accused for questioning, they said.
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A case of alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption against Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy, Lok Sabha MPs Sultan Ahmed, Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Aparupa Poddar, among others had been filed by the CBI.
On Friday, the Calcutta High Court also directed the CBI to continue probing allegations against Poddar, while hearing a petition to quash the charges filed by the Lok Sabha MP.
In early 2016, a news portal, Narada News, released video clips in which people resembling senior TMC leaders appeared to be receiving money allegedly after promising favours.
The release appeared to have been timed just ahead of the 2016 West Bengal state assembly polls and became a point of discussion during the pre-poll campaign. TMC was already reeling from the brunt of arrests of its leaders in cases related to dubious chit funds and financial scams in the state.
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Narada News is operated by Mathew Samuels. Supporters of the BJP had cheered Samuel for allegedly exposing the TMC leaders. In 2001, Samuel had been in the opposite corner when he had videotaped then BJP chief Bangaru Laxman accepting a bribe. Laxman was later convicted for similar charges under which the TMC leaders had been booked.
The 2001 sting, called “Operation Westend”, had been published online by Tehelka, then a website. Around 2010, TMC Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, KD Singh, had bought nearly 70 percent shares in the company that owned Tehelka. In 2014, Singh’s company took over Tehelka’s management and inducted Samuel as a managing editor. The sting operation on the TMC leaders was conducted supposedly around 2014.
In an interview to Outlook,Samuel claimed that Singh had funded his sting operation but had not let him release the tapes.
The sting was only released under a separate entity – ‘Narada’ – and Singh has denied any connection to it.
When the tapes were released, the West Bengal police set up an investigation into it.
Unsatisfied with the WB police’s lack of progress, a division bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice T. Chakraborti, of the Calcutta HC directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the Narada scam. The West Bengal government filed an appeal. In March 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta HC’s decision directing the CBI probe.
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Alleging political vendetta, Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has said that the CBI is acting at the behest of the Modi government to target its leaders.
