Thirteen Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders including MPs and ministers in West Bengal government have been booked by the CBI for corruption in the Narada sting case where they were allegedly caught on camera taking money.
The agency has registered case of alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption against Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy, Lok Sabha MPs Sultan Ahmed, Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Aparupa Poddar, among others, CBI sources said.
The case has been registered on the completion of preliminary enquiry (PE) by the CBI.
The PE was registered on directions of a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice T Chakraborti. The Narada sting tapes, which were released to different news organisations before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal, showed people resembling senior TMC leaders receiving money allegedly for giving future favours.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asserted that merely filing of the FIR by the CBI against Trinamool Congress leaders in the Narada tape case did not mean that their guilt have been proved.
Describing it as a “political game,” Banerjee, who is also the TMC chief, said, “We will fight it out politically”.
“Because they (CBI) have filed the FIR, does it mean their guilt is proved? Let them (the CBI) first prove the guilt. There is no cause for any worry,” she told reporters at the state secretariat.