Posers on timing and motive leave Narada’s Samuel red-faced

Mathew Samuel, editor of Narada News on Friday admitted  that while getting employment he conveniently forgot to tell his employer KD Singh, Trinamool Congress MP and owner of Tehelka that he had conducted a sting operation on his party colleagues nor could he come up a with a convincing explanation on why he worked for him for two years.

He was felicitated at a function by Study Circle, an NGO at Kolkata Press Club on Friday afternoon. 

Samuel fumbled when asked why he took two years to bring the sting operation into the public domain. He also appeared flustered when asked about the timing of the sting that too just ahead of the election in West Bengal. 

“My friends wanted the video to be published” was the weak explanation given by him.

Samuel refused to divulge the names of those who had given him the money which he had given to the TMC leaders. 

“If High Court wants I will name the financiers and they in turn will reveal from where they had received the money. “He said the money did not come from Dubai through hawala transaction as claimed by TMC spokesperson, Derek O’ Brien. “It did not come from Dubai. It was given by my friends.” 

Asked why he called up a particular telephone number in Dubai so many times, he replied that he had to do this because his head office was in Dubai.

Asked whether BJP had bought the video of the sting operation from him, he replied: “I do not know anyone in BJP. I had called up Adhir Chowdhury of Congress, Mohammad Selim of CPIM and SS Ahluwalia after the Parliament session was over. 

“Go to Delhi and ask anyone about my credentials. They will tell you that I have no connection with any political leader.”

He said his driver brought Tiger and Iqbal and they took him to TMC leaders. “I am not a political leader and all I want is that those named in the sting operation should be punished.”

When asked why he had suppressed the sting operation conducted on Subrata Roy in jail, he remained mum. He also preferred to remain silent on the numerous sting operations he had carried out in his career which curiously never saw the light of day. 

There are also unanswered questions on whose behest he chose to target the TMC. “Why did work for a magazine funded by a TMC MP if he was so inimical to their ideology? Why did he suddenly have an axe to grind? wondered a senior journalist working for a vernacular daily.