CBI files FIRs in Narada case

Twelve Trinamool Congress leaders including Mukul Roy and Madan Mitra have been booked by the CBI for alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption in the Narada sting case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the FIR under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with bribery and criminal misconduct against the TMC leaders including sitting MPs and West Bengal ministers besides one IPS officer, the CBI spokesperson said on Monday.

The maximum sentence for these crimes ranges from five to seven years of imprisonment.

The TMC leaders booked by the CBI are Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy, Lok Sabha MPs Saugata Roy, Aparupa Poddar, Sultan Ahmed, Prasun Banerjee and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, CBI sources said.

State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Environment Minister Sovan Chatterjee, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee have also named in the FIR, they said.

Former minister Madan Mitra, MLA Iqbal Ahmed and IPS officer Saiyaad Mustafa Hussain Mirza have also been made accused by the CBI of the alleged crime, they added.

The challenge before the CBI would be to prove it as a case of bribery and conspiracy. It is learnt that CBI will undertake the investigation on a war footing but sources ruled out any possibility of immediate arrest.

This investigation will be monitored by Gujarat cadre IPS officer and present Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

The Calcutta High Court had ordered the CBI to carry out a preliminary enquiry in the tapes.

The order was challenged by the West Bengal government in the Supreme Court which refused to provide relief in the order on March 17 and gave the CBI one month to file an FIR, if required.

The CBI was directed to undertake preliminary probe to ascertain whether those who featured in the video footage indulged in "corrupt practices" and if required to initiate an FIR.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted that merely filing of the FIR by the CBI against Trinamool Congress leaders in the Narada tape case did not mean that their guilt had been proved.

Describing it as a "political game," Banerjee, who is also the TMC chief, said, "We will fight it out politically".

"Because they (CBI) have filed the FIR, does it mean their guilt is proved? Let them (the CBI) first prove the guilt. There is no cause for any worry," she told reporters at the state secretariat.