Calcutta HC directs CFSL to analyse Narada tapes

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed CFSL Hyderabad to ascertain whether the Narada tapes and devices used to record an alleged sting operation against Trinamool Congress leaders are genuine or not.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A Banerjee ordered the director of Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Hyderabad to make preliminary inquiry to find out whether the devices used in the 'sting' and the recordings are tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.

It directed the CFSL to complete the analysis within four weeks of being given the recordings and devices -- an iPhone, a laptop and a pen drive in which the recordings are stored.

The court observed that as a preliminary step it has to first ascertain whether the devices are tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.

The purported recordings, which were released by Narada News a few days after elections to the West Bengal Assembly were announced, show Trinamool Congress MPs and state ministers allegedly taking money.

The court said that as per Narada News editor-in-chief Mathew Samuel's affidavit, the alleged sting was recorded on iPhone, the recordings were then transferred to a laptop and then the recordings were transferred to a pen drive.

Noting that Samuel had handed over the iPhone and pen drive to a court-appointed three-member committee but not the laptop, the bench directed him to go to Hyderabad and hand over the laptop to the CFSL director within a week.

The bench directed the high court registrar (original side), who is the chairman of the committee, to personally hand over the iPhone and pen drive to the CFSL director.

It further directed that the report of the analysis should be kept confidential by CFSL and that it shall be collected by the chairman of the committee personally and placed before the court.

The bench noted that Samuel had put a condition that the cost of laptop be deposited before handing it over and observed that Samuel was the person who initiated the matter and as such cannot put conditions while directing him to go and hand over the laptop to CFSL director.