November 06, 2024 07:10 (IST)
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Narada News sting shows top TMC leaders taking bribes, party denies
New Delhi/Kolkata, Mar 14 (IBNS): A newly launched news portal- Narada News- on Monday morning released a video in New Delhi, where some top leaders of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) were shown taking bribes, prompting the Opposition to demand resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee even as the ruling party rubbished the footage as a politically motivated move to discredit it ahead of polls.
Several TMC leaders, including ministers, MLAs and MPs, and an IPS officer were shown collecting a huge amount of bribe from the Narada News reporters, in the 23-minute long video footage.
The news portal claimed that two Narada News reporters- Mathew Samuel and Angel Abraham- produced the string operation and their investigation was completed in 2014, before Lok Sabha election.
The sting operation took nearly 2 years and the company spent nearly Rs 75 lakh to make this video, it claimed. It set up a fictitious company, named Impex Consultancy, in the state to conduct the sting.
The leaders or officials or lawmakers shown in the sting are MH Ahmed Mirza (senior police officer), Mukul Roy, Subrata Mukherjee, Sultan Ahmed, Suvendhu Adhikari, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasoon Banerjee, Sovon Chatterjee, Madan Mitra, Iqbal Ahmed, Farhad Hakim.
However, the ruling party denied the allegation against them. TMC Rajya Sabha MP and chief national spokesperson Derek O'Brien said, "We have watched the video of the so-called 'sting' operation. There is no sting in it. We are completely dismissive about it."
"All I can say to our shameless political opponents is, come, fight us politically. Do not take recourse to your dirty tricks department," he further said.
All other TMC leaders, who were caught taking bribes, did not receive their phones.
Meanwhile, all opponent parties of the state, including BJP, Congress and CPI-M, filed complaint to the full bench of Election Commission of India, which is here in Kolkata.
Opposition party leader Surya Kanta Mishra told IBNS, "What we were complaining since last 4 and half years, has been proved by this video. Such a corrupt party should not have right to run a government."
BJP West Bengal affairs in-charge: Siddharth Nath Singh said Mamata Banerjee must immediately resign as the Chief Minister.
However, TMC has not challenged the footage officially so far.
IBNS has not verified the contents of the sting indedpendently.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha, Image Credit: Narada News)
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