2 TMC Leaders Jailed, 2 Hospitalized As Narada Bribery Case Gains Momentum
After the bail in the Narada bribery case was stayed by the Calcutta High Court, four Trinamool leaders were shifted to jail in Kolkata late on Monday night.
The leaders, Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Trinamool MLA Madan Mitra and former leader Sovan Chatterjee, were escorted to the Presidency correctional home after their early morning arrest over a bribery case from 2014.
Mitra and Chaerjee had to be hospitalized, however, after the two ministers began complaining of breathlessness early the next morning. While Subrata Mukherjee also joined them briefly for an examination, he was soon cleared to be sent back by medical officers.
The arrest comes in light of a 2014 scandal where seven Trinamool MPs, four ministers, one MLA and a police officer were caught taking bribes on tape by Narada news journalist Matthew Samuel. Samuel posed as a businessman offering bribes with plans to invest in Bengal, a case that has since landed TMC members in hot water.
Party leader and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Bannerjee expressed outrage over the arrest for six hours at the CBI office, daring officials to arrest her as well.
One of the accused, Madan Mitra, could be heard asking reporters outside the Nizam Palace why Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, two former TMC members who later joined the BJP, were not arrested in connection with the scandal. Meanwhile, Firhad Hakim went on to weep on camera that the BJP’s harassment cut short the leader’s intentions to help the city during the pandemic.
Suvendhu Adhikari was one of the thirteen men named in the 2014 Narada sting.
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