Narada sting case: CM Mamata Banerjee stages 6-hour dharna at CBI office

Kolkata, May 17: At a time when the west coast of the country is being hammered by Cyclone Tauktae bring destruction in Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and other states, Bengal witnessed a political storm on Monday that has the potential to snowball into a huge Centre vs state issue.

On Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Mamata's cabinet colleagues Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra as well as former minister Sovan Chatterjee in connection with the Narada sting case in which politicians were purportedly caught taking money on camera in 2014.

As soon as the news of the arrest of her party leaders was made public, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to the CBI Kolkata office situated at the Nizam Palace building.

The chief minister, who arrived at the CBI office around 11 am, "told our officers that they have to arrest her if they want her to leave Nizam Palace," sources in the central probe agency said. Mamata Banerjee left the building in the evening after nearly six-hour-long sit-in.

While Mamata protested inside the CBI office, TMC supporters held demonstrations defying lockdown norms outside and at various locations in the city. TMC party supporters defied Bengals lockdown norms, raised slogans against the BJP-led NDA government, and hurled stones and bricks at security personnel outside Nizam Palace.