New Delhi/Kolkata: Ahead of the West Bengal elections, the state’s ruling Trinamul Congress led by chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been put in a tight corner with its ministers and MPs caught in a sting operation for allegedly accepting bribes from a fictitious import-export company. The TMC has, however, denied the charge and claimed the videos were “doctored”.
A news portal’s “sting” operation alleged that three West Bengal ministers, some MPs and MLAs had allegedly accepted bribes from a fictitious import-export company. The news portal, Narada News, released the tape of the operation which it claimed to have conducted over the last two years at a news conference in New Delhi on Monday.
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The tape purportedly shows the ministers and legislators taking cash, said to be around Rs 5 lakhs each, in return for favours such as lobbying for a fictitious company “Impex Consultancy”. A journalist from the portal claimed to be a representative of the company to seek help from them.
The TMC was quick to dismiss the tapes as “doctored” and said the “dirty tricks departments” of its political rivals were behind the “smear campaign”. However, the BJP demanded the resignation of Mamata Banerjee and the CPI(M) sought President’s Rule in the state in the wake of the news portal’s “sting” operation.
In a video statement, Trinamul MP Derek O’Brien said the party had seen the video which he described as a “smear” campaign against it. He threatened to sue the portal for defamation. “We are completely transparent. (Chief minister) Mamatadi’s credentials are impeccable.
The people of Bengal know. We are busy with elections now. So whoever has concocted this smear campaign, please go ahead and concoct your smear campaign or your doctored video,” he said.
“Where these videos came from, who doctored these videos ... will now be put to (test) in a defamation case. We are not bothered. This is a smear campaign. Our political opponents know they cannot defeat us politically, so they create a cheap tricks department, a dirty tricks department,” said Mr O’Brien.
Journalist Mathew Samuel of the news portal, who led the team that conducted the “sting”, termed the release of the video before the Assembly polls as a “mere coincidence”. He said he had no political backing.
The video, which triggered a major political storm in poll-bound West Bengal, could not have surfaced at a worse time for the ruling TMC. BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh showed the 24-minute-long video at the party office in Kolkata only hours before the arrival of the full bench of the Election Commission in the city.
The video showed Trinamul Congress vice-president Mukul Roy, MPs Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmed, Suvendu Adhikari, Prasun Banerjee and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, state ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, MLA Iqbal Ahmed, Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, former state transport minister and Saradha scam accused Madan Mitra, former Burdwan SP H.M.S. Mirza and other TMC leaders accepting wads of currency notes from a fake consulting firm to allow it to set up a company in West Bengal.
“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee must step down immediately. She has no business to remain in the post even for few days before the election. Her party and leaders are neck-deep in corruption and we are writing a letter to the director of the CBI asking the agency to investigate the matter,” Mr Singh said.
He claimed that the TMC-led West Bengal government had broken all records in corruption. The video showed the TMC leaders and the police officer accepting bribes of around Rs 73 lakhs from the fake consultancy firm. Around Rs 4 akhs to Rs 5 lakhs was used in each transaction, with the exception of Mr Roy, who was offered Rs 20 lakhs. However, Mr Roy could not be seen taking any money.
