Narada editor Mathew Samuel on Friday tore through the Trinamool Congress’ argument that the wads of notes its senior leaders received from him during a sting operation were not given as bribe but as donation.
“Had it been donation then there would be receipts. But where are the receipts,” Samuels said, insisting the money was paid in lieu of certain favours in future.
On how he could get to the Ministers and MPs and other senior leaders, he said Trinamool MlA Iqbal Ahmed and IPS officer Mirza acted as intermediaries wondering why some Trinamool leaders were attacking him for making calls to Dubai.
“Everyone knows that we have an office in Dubai and I can make 10-15 calls a day to that office,” he said and wondered “How Derek O’Brien could know about what calls I made to Dubai. This means that they were tracking my telephone number,” which was unethical and illegal, he maintained.
On why he did not come to Kolkata earlier after the High Court asked him to file an affidavit here, he said he was concerned about the security of his video footages. “Now that I know that the footages are safely preserved” upon court’s order I decided to come to Kolkata.
A Narada News sting operation conducted by Samuel, whence he presented himself as a businessman, showed a host of Trinamool Congress leaders including half-a-dozen MPs, a couple of Ministers receiving money from him in lieu of favours in the future.
Among those shown in the footage were MPs Sougato Roy, Kakoli Ghoshdastidar, Sultan Ahmed, Ministers Firhad Hakim, Subroto Mukherjee, Kolkata Mayor Sobhan Chatterjee and former Trinamool students’ wing chief Shankudeb Panda.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress on Friday made a representation before the State Chief Electoral Officer where it demanded immediate cancellation of Samuel’s programmes in Kolkata on account of the fact that it was election time in Bengal and that the Narada issue was sub-judice and had also been taken up by the lok Sabha Ethics Committee for investigation.
The representation had been forwarded to the Election Commission of India, CEO sources said. The Opposition left filed a counter representation saying the EC could not stop Samuel from attending programmes in Kolkata as it would hurt the very essence of individual freedom guaranteed by the India Constitution.