In yet another blow to the Trinamool Congress the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday turned down the Bengal ruling outfit’s plea to postpone the Narada expose hearing till the Assembly elections were over and directed the news portal to file an affidavit and submit the original and unedited footages of the sting operation along with the camera used to shoot the contents.
Trinamool MP and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee objected to the hearing taking place before the elections as the “so-called expose” he contended, was done with a political motive to malign the ruling party. However, advocate Bikash Bhattacharya who appeared for the petitioner said notwithstanding its timing the footage of the video films merited examination for their genuineness as the incident concerned larger public interest.
A public interest litigation was filed earlier demanding a probe into the Narada expose where a galaxy of Trinamool leaders including its MPs and senior Ministers were caught accepting cash for promise from a sting journalist who posed as a businessman.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur called for the original video footages of the expose and file an affidavit in two week’s time. The Narada has offered to submit the footages, the camera and file an affidavit by April 5. The next date of hearing has been fixed for April 8.
The portal was also likely to submit the footages of the second sting operation released on Monday showing another Trinamool MP from Arambagh in Hooghly district Aparupa Poddar accepting cash from a Narada representative. Apart from her party leader Sankudeb Panda was also shown striking a deal with the person demanding an estate from him in lieu of some favour.
Curiously while all the earlier leaders discarded the video footage as fabricated Poddar said the money could well have been accepted as donation for electoral purposes.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission said that Rs 1 crore had been seized by flying squads in various districts in the past 18 days. The ECI squads were keeping an eye on money being siphoned from one place to other for electoral purposes.