Narada scam: 2 Bengal ministers, 1 MLA arrested, Mamata rushes to CBI office

Kolkata, May 17: The CBI on Monday arrested TMC heavyweights Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, MLA Madan Mitra and former Mayor Sovhan Chatterjee in its probe on the Narada sting case.

Chie Minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to the CBI office in Kolkata soon after the arrest of her ministers and MLAs.

A CBI team along with central forces reached Hakim's Chetla residence in the morning and took him to the probe agency''s office, the officials said.

"The CBI has arrested me in the Narada case. We will settle this matter in court," Hakim, the state's Transport and Housing Minister, claimed.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had recently sanctioned prosecution against Hakim and other senior leaders of the TMC, including Mitra and Mukherjee.

Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet when the tapes were allegedly made in 2014.

Hakim, Mukherjee and Mitra have been re-elected as TMC MLAs in the just-concluded assembly elections, while Chatterjee, who left the TMC to join the BJP, has severed links with both the camps.

The Narada sting tapes, made public before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal, were claimed to have been shot in 2014, wherein people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of promised favours.

The sting operation was allegedly conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada News portal.

The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March, 2017.