Senior Trinamool Congress Parliamentarians and leaders were caught purportedly accepting bribes in a media sting operation video released on Monday, igniting a wave of condemnation from political opponents in the run up to the West Bengal Assembly polls.
In the video, Trinamool leaders, including lok Sabha MPs Saugata Roy and Sultan Ahmed, Bengal Minister Subrata Mukherjee (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj), and Kolkata Mayor Shovan Chatterjee, are purportedly shown taking cash in return for lobbying for a fictitious import-export firm, Impex Consultancy.
The video also shows Mukul Roy, who served as Railways Minister in 2012, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, the second most important woman leader in Trinamool Congress, and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim.
Others who allegedly accepted cash were TMC leaders Sukhanto Adhikari and Karan Sharma, Madan Mitra, former Minister in the Mamata Banerjee Cabinet, lawmaker Iqbal Ahmed and Ahmed Mirza, a senior police officer.
The news portal, Narada News, released footage of the 12 top TMC leaders and police officer allegedly taking cash, said to be around Rs 5 lakh each, with the exception of Roy, who was offered Rs 20 lakh, from the representatives of Impex Consultancy, in return for favours such as lobbying for the firm.
A journalist from the portal presented himself as a representative of the company to seek help from them.
Narada News, released the tape of the operation which it claimed to have conducted over the last two years,before the 2014 lok Sabha elections, at a Press
conference here on Monday, just a fortnight ahead of polls in the State.
The TMC was quick to dismiss the tapes as “doctored”.
In a video statement, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said the party had seen the video which he described as a “smear” campaign against the party. He threatened to sue the portal for defamation.
“We are completely transparent. Mamata di’s credentials are impeccable. The people of Bengal know. We are busy with elections now. So whoever has concocted this smear campaign, please go ahead and concoct your smear campaign or your doctored video,” O’Brien said.
“Where these videos came from, who doctored these videos, will now be put to (test) in a defamation case. We are not bothered. Our political opponents know they cannot defeat us politically so they create a cheap tricks department,” he added.
Meanwhile, Narada News reporter Mathew Samuel, termed the release of the video ahead of the State polls as a “mere coincidence”. He said he had no political backing.
In the video, Sovan Chatterjee was purportedly heard saying that he would “introduce” the representatives of Impex Consultancy to Mamata “after the election.”
“Whatever you want, my assistance, I will give you,” said Sultan Ahmed, former Union Minister for Tourism in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government.
“You want any letter, any recommendation form, I will do,” he said, after allegedly receiving Rs 5 lakh.
Reacting to the development, CPI(M) State secretary Surya Kanta Mishra said, “It is matter of shame that this Government is still continuing.”
With a full Bench of the Election Commission (EC) in Kolkata and the leaders of all parties scheduled to meet the EC, the issue is expected to snowball.
Mathew claimed that about Rs 65 lakh was spent as bribe money on TMC leaders. He said the source of the money were Non-Resident Indians from Dubai and the United States.
The reporters, Samuel and Angel Abraham, decided to investigate corruption in West Bengal after the TMC Government was hit by the Rs 2,500 crore Saradha Chit Fund scam in 2014.
“What we recorded on camera is unbelievable. Here almost all leaders of the TMC were willing to flout almost any rules of the State for a bundle of cash,” the video-report said.