2 Bengal Ministers In CBI Office In Narada Bribery Case, Arrests Expectly

Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim, taken out by central security personnel from his home this morning, alleged that he was being arrested in the Narada bribery case without proper sanction.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had earlier sanctioned CBI investigations in opposition of Firhad Hakim along with three others, state minister Subrata Mukherjee and former ministers Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee.

The Speaker of the state assembly has to sanction the prosecution of MLAs. But in this case, the CBI did not ask the Bengal assembly Speaker for sanction but approached the Governor instead. The Governor said he had the authority to grant sanction not because the four leaders were MLAs but because they were ministers sworn in by him in 2011.

All four were ministers in the previous Mamata Banerjee government when the Narada bribery tapes were released in 2014.

The case involves a sting operation by the Narada news portal, in which Trinamool leaders were on camera accepting bribes.

A journalist from Delhi came to Kolkata, posed as a businessman planning to invest in Bengal, gave wads of cash to seven Trinamool MPs, four ministers, one MLA and a police officer as bribe and taped the entire operation.

The so-called “Narada tapes” were released just before the 2016 assembly elections in the state.

Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee were sworn in by the Governor as members of the new Mamata Banerjee cabinet after she won a third straight term in last month’s Bengal election.