What about Suvendu asks journalist behind Narada Sting
New Delhi, May 18: Senior journalist Mathew Samuel whose brainchild was the Narada sting operation, on Monday said he is satisfied after the CBI arrested two Trinamool Congress ministers, an MLA and a former party minister in connection with its probe into the scam.
Samuel, however, expressed surprise that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not arrest former TMC minister Suvendu Adhikari, another accused in the same case who has joined the BJP.
Senior ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and former ministers Madan Mitra, who is now an MLA, and Sovan Chatterjee, were arrested in the morning. They secured bail later from a CBI court.
Samuel said that steps against corruption are needed and investigations should be fair.
Narada scam case: All 4 Bengal ministers get bail
The sting operation was conducted by Samuel of Narada News, a web portal, in 2014 wherein some people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of favours.
At that time, the four were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government which also had initiated a probe against Samuel.
The operation was made public ahead of the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017.
"It's quite satisfying to see these leaders arrested. The CBI could not do anything even if it had the chargesheet ready three years ago. They could not touch them, Samuel said when PTI contacted him.
"But
I
feel
bad
that
Suvendu
Adhikaris
name
is
not
there
on
the
list
of
those
arrested,
Samuel
said.
When
pointed
out
that
the
CBI
also
did
not
take
any
step
against
former
TMC
MP
and
now
BJP
MLA
Mukul
Roy,
another
accused
in
the
case,
Samuel
said
that
his
is
a
different
matter
as
there
is
no
video
evidence
against
him.
Arrest of Bengal ministers, others in Narada case illegal: Assembly Speaker
The arrests were made after Governor Jagdeep Dhankar gave the CBI the go-ahead to prosecute the four leaders. West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee dubbed the arrests as illegal, contending that the governor's sanction to prosecute them was unlawful.