CBI seeks sanction from LS Speaker to charge 3 TMC MPs

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has asked for the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla’s permission to prosecute Trinamool Congress MPs namely, Sougata Roy and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar in connection with the Narada sting operation of 2016, in which many leaders were seen allegedly taking bribes, reported NDTV. These video clips surfaced before the 2016 West Bengal election.

CBI sources have said the agency has written to the Speaker requesting sanction to act against Roy, Dastidar and Prasun Banerjee. Bengal Minister and former MP Subhendu Adhikari is also being investigated.

"We are yet to receive sanction. Once received, we will file the first chargesheet in the Narada case naming the above four as an accused," a senior CBI officer told NDTV.

Mukul Roy, who quit Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in 2017 and joined the BJP, will not be named as an accused in the chargesheet, sources said. They also added that the CBI would continue its probe against him.

In 2014, Matthew Samuel, the CEO of Narada News, conducted a sting operation posing as a businessman and was seen in the tapes offering money to many Trinamool Congress leaders. It came to be known as the "Narada" scandal.

The ruling BJP repeatedly targeted Bengal's ruling party with "Narada and Sarada (chit fund scam)" jibes while campaigning for the national election earlier this year. The TMC, which has been stunned by the BJP's impressive performance in the national election - 18 of 42 seats from the state, will take another major blow to its image if more of its members are arrested in the run-up to the 2021 polls.