Investigation into the Narada sting case seems to have opened a can of worms for many Bengal ruling party politicians. Consequently 15 more Trinamool Congress leaders can get sucked into the vortex of the bribery scam which seems to have pushed Mamata Banerjee regime on a wobbly ground politically.
The CBI has stumbled upon jaw-dropping instances of unconcealed palm greasing promoted by some top leaders of the Bengal ruling party, sources confirm. The greed displayed on their part was so blatant that the Ministers and MPs repeatedly called up the sting journalist to pay up their “dues” often as small as a couple of lakhs rupees --- “not even stopping to cross check the identity of the person from whom they were asking money.”
According to sources “what is visible in the video tapes is just a clip of what transpired in the unedited sections.” Narada News CEO Mathew Samuels has reportedly told the CBI that he would not always pay the full promised amount to the accused leaders which made them ring him up repeatedly for the remaining part of the cash.
The “incriminating” evidences including both audio and video tapes may trigger a “forensic auditing” of the leaders’ accounts which if done could attract disproportionate asset laws against them investigators suggest. And the CBI is loudly thinking of doing so, sources said.
A video tape released in March 2016 showed how a bevy of senior Trinamool leaders including Ministers and MPs accepting liquid cash from a sting journalist who posed as a prospective investor allegedly for speeding up the projects for the company he claimed to represent.
The tapes though published in 2016 relates to mid 2014 when General elections were taking place. The leaders shown in the video and against whom FIR has been drawn following a Supreme Court order are Saugato Roy, Kakoli Ghoshdastidar, Prasun Banerjee, Sultan Ahmed, Aparupa Poddar all MPs and Subhendu Adhikary, Subroto Mukherjee, Madan Mitra, Sovan Chatterjee and Firhad Hakim --- all Ministers apart from SMH Mirza a senior IPS officer.
What is bothering the Trinamool Congress is the 15 untold names including two more MPs --- that figure in the unedited section and the audio tapes, sources said.
The tapes have not only been authenticated by Chandigarh based forensic laboratory but also a subsequent testimony of Samuels, the sting journalist concerned has confirmed the role of the 15 other leaders who were not shown in the sting video, sources say.
The investigators are also taking into account a recent statement made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who recently told the media that it was not unusual for the leaders to accept cash from businessmen during elections.
However, the cash accepted from the fake company referred to in the sting video during 2014 general polls was not shown in any account book, neither was it mentioned in the expenditure account submitted to the Election Commission, calling for an investigation into the money trail.
“Only a forensic auditing of the accounts of these leaders and those whose name figure in the audio tapes can provide a clue to this question,” said sources adding forensic auditing will also bring into light the details of the income-expenditure pattern of the said leaders, their properties, which will then be tallied with their income tax returns and the returns filed with the Commission.
This may put the Trinamool leaders in big jeopardy, particularly those who are proclaimed avid buyers and known for their exquisite collections of pricey watches and other artifacts insiders say adding DA case was not being ruled out in such case.