In a brief yet major respite to Mamata Banerjee Governm-ent the Hyderabad-based Central Forensic Science laboratory (CFSl) has expressed its inability to examine the genuineness of the Narada video footage for lack of technology, said lawyers of Calcutta High Court where the matter was being heard.
The CFSl, Hyderabad has returned the footage along with the hardware sent by the Calcutta High Court for its forensic examination saying only CFSl, Chandigarh had the necessary technology to test the genuineness of footages shot with the help of I-phones.
The court, after opening the sealed envelope sent by CFSl, Hyderabad on Friday issued a fresh order for sending the sting footages to CFSl, Chandigarh within ten days. The matter will be heard after 42 days.
In an unprecedented expose involving almost the entire leadership of a ruling political party of the State, Narada News a news portal had in a sting operation caught a galaxy of senior Trinamool Congress leaders accepting cash from a journalist who was posing as a prospective investor.
The incidents were shot in 2014 but were revealed in March-April 2016 just ahead of the Bengal Assembly elections. Among those who featured in the footage were Ministers, Subroto Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, MPs Suvendu Adhikary (now State Transport Minister), Saugato Roy, Aparupa Poddar, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sultan Ahmed, Kolkata Mayor (and currently a Minister) Sovan Chatterjee. A senior police officer SMH Mirza was also shown in the footage taking cash for favour.
In the report the CFSl Hyderabad said that it did not have the technology for testing the veracity of footages shot by I-phone, said advocate Rabishankar Chatterjee adding I-phones had special technology whereby even the deleted footages could be reconstructed and deciphered. “Only CFSl Chandigarh has the requisite technology to read the genuineness of footages shot from I-phone and so the High Court has directed it to examine the footages and send its opinions in a month’s time.”
Meanwhile, in what the Opposition parties called a diversionary tactic of a “thoroughly politicised police force” Kolkata Police raided hotels where Narada CEO Mathew Samuels stayed in Kolkata and seized CCTV footages and registers.
Police sources also claimed that they had found some discrepancies in the monetary transaction of Samuels related to his stay in Kolkata.
This apart, footages and registers were also seized from two travel agencies through which he booked his tickets.
Earlier, CM Mamata Banerjee had ordered a police enquiry into the Narada sting claiming a conspiracy.