Central forensic lab confirms sting footage's authenticity: Narada News claims
"The Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh has confirmed that the tapes of the sting operation by Narada News named ‘X’ files done by Editor in Chief Mathew Samuel are genuine and have not been tampered with," the news portal said.
Posting the photocopies of forensic test's report on its website, Narada News stated that the audio and video contents of forty seven movie files (.mov) had been examined using the software Media info, Forevid, Video Editor, Gold wave, Adobe Audition.
"The remaining 26 movie files (.mov) could not be played with the software available in the laboratory," Narada News further said.
Narada's CEO and Editor-in-Chief Mathew Samuel wrote in their story,"The truth always prevails. I have been saying from day one that the tapes are genuine and have not been tampered or edited. I welcome the decision.”
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising of Chief Justice Manjulla Chellur and Justice Arijit Banerjee, ordered forensic test of the raw tapes and the CFSL Chandigarh has already submitted its report before the division bench.
The report will be unveiled on the next day of hearing in the matter, which is scheduled to be held on Aug 19.
Since March 14, news portal- Narada News- released several sting operation footage, where TMC's leaders, ministers, MPs and MLAs were exposed while allegedly taking bribes.
From the beginning, TMC leaderships had claimed that the sting footage was doctored and conspiracy of oppositions.
Following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's direction, Kolkata Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, had started investigation into the matter.
It already quizzed senior IPS officer S. M. H. Mirza and Kolkata Deputy Mayor Iqbal Ahmed, and summoned Narada News's CEO Mathew Samuel thrice.
As Samuel avoided visiting Kolkata Police's headquarters Lalbazar, a look out notice was issued against him and he was detained by the customs and Delhi Police at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Saturday evening, while he was returning his home from Dubai.
As, the Calcutta High Court issued an interim stay order on Kolkata Police's ongoing investigation into Narada sting operation till next hearing on Aug 19, Samuel was released later at night.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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