Two Bengal Ministers Among Those Named In Narada Sting Case Chargesheet

A chargesheet has been filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the Narada sting case, which names two Bengal ministers - Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee. Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra and former Trinamool leader Sovan Chatterjee have also been named in the chargesheet, filed by the central probe agency months after the dramatic arrest of the four leaders.

The arrests in May, just days after Mamata Banerjee's big win in Bengal, were described as "vendetta politics" by the Chief Minister. 

She had spent six hours at the Kolkata office of the CBI to protest the probe agency's action, hours after central forces had arrived at the leaders' homes to take them to the Kolkata office.

"The way they have been arrested without due procedure, CBI will have to arrest me also," she had said at the time.

The leaders have been accused of accepting Rs 4 to 5 lakh as bribe in a sting operation by the Narada news portal in 2014.  Those conducting the sting operation had approached the ministers as representatives of a fictitious firm and offered bribes in return of favours.

The tapes were released ahead of the 2016 state elections. Mamata Banerjee's party had returned to power despite uproar over the Narada sting case and another case over the Sarada chit scam.

Trinamool leaders Subrata Mukherjee, Aparupa Poddar, Sougata Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Banerjee, Madan Mitra, Firhad Hakim and Iqbal Ahmed were seen in the Narada footage.

In May, the ruling Trinamool Congress had questioned the CBI's inaction against the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who were also on the tapes. 

Mr Roy, however, returned to the Trinamool Congress in June.