West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at the CBI office in Kolkata today in an angry state and asked the agency to arrest her too after two of her ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, were arrested in the Narada bribery case.
"The way they have been arrested without due procedure, CBI will have to arrest me also," Banerjee said according to Trinamool lawyer Anidya Raut.
She spent 45 minutes at the CBI office as Trinamool leaders protested outside.
TMC leaders were taken by the central agency on Monday morning escalating the Bengal-Centre clash brewing since Mamata Banerjee's election victory.
Banerjee reached the CBI office minutes after the arrest of Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and Madan Mitra, along with former TMC leader Sovan Chatterjee, who is also a former mayor of Kolkata. Among these, Hakim and Mukherjee are sitting ministers in the West Bengal government directed by Banerjee, Mitra is an MLA, while Chatterjee joined the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019, but later resigned after he was denied a ticket by the BJP from his traditional assembly constituency Behala east for the recently-held assembly elections in the eastern state.
Just a few weeks later after the TMC emerged victorious in the assembly elections, on May 9, West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar permitted the prosecution of the four accused in the case.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh has called the arrest “illegal” and “undemocratic”, while, Biman Banerjee, TMC leader and speaker of the West Bengal assembly, said, “CBI didn’t inform us. If they’ve been arrested, it is illegal. The prior permission of the legislative assembly speaker is required but was not taken.”
However, the BJP has denied having any links with the arrests, state BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharjee said, “We have nothing to say. The BJP has nothing to do with this.”
BJP is the ruling party at the Centre and CBI reports directly to the central government.
Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra and Chatterjee have been arrested under sections 120b of the IPC and sections 7 and 13(1)(a) 13(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. They will be produced in a court later in the day.
The case concerns a series of videos uploaded by the Narada News portal in 2016, ahead of that year’s assembly elections, where several high-profile TMC leaders can be seen taking money in exchange for favours to an imaginary company.
Mamata Banerjee's party has questioned the timing of the action against Trinamool ministers soon after her victory in the elections that was no less than a prestige fight between both parties.
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There were 12 TMC leaders accused in the Narada Tape case.
Mukul Roy, who was then a Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP and Suvendu Adhikari, who was a Lok Sabha MP are now with the BJP.
Suvendu Adhikari’s prosecution, who now is a BJP MLA from Nandigram, has not been permitted yet by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
No action has taken against the recently elected BJP MLA Mukul Roy, though he was not only seen taking the cash, but he had sent the sting operator to the police officer who was seen accepting the bribes.
Another MP linked to the bribery case Sultan Ahmed has died.
Also Read: Narada case: CBI arrests Trinamool's Firhad, Subrata, Madan, Sovon
The CBI has asked for consent to prosecute Suvendu Adhikari, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Banerjee and Aparupa Poddar, for which the Lok Sabha Speaker has not given permission.