Three weeks before West Bengal goes to the polls, a political storm has broken out as a news website called Narada News on Monday released videos that purport to show several leaders of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress accepting wads of cash in return for promises to grant favours to a fictitious company.
Scroll.in is not in a position to independently verify the claims made in the video.
Trinamool leaders named in the video put out include Subrata Mukherjee, state minister for public health engineering, Sultan Ahmed, member of the Lok Sabha, Sugata Roy, former union minister, Bobby Hakim, the state urban development minister and Sovon Chatterjee, the mayor of Kolkata, amongst others.
Mathew Samuels from Narada News claimed that a total amount of Rs 70 lakh was spent on the sting operation but refused to divulge the source of funds.
Political slugfest
While the sting had been conducted in March 2014, it was released to the public two years later, on Monday, leading to the Trinamool raising questions about the timing. “The timing is just a coincidence,” said Samuels in a press interaction on Monday.
Derek O'Brien, the Trinamool spokesperson threatened to sue the portal for defamation, reported the Telegraph. "This is a smear campaign by our political rivals," said O'Brien. "We don't know if that video is doctored or even whose voice it is in it
At a rally in north Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that this was a smear campaign since the opposition had no other issues to raise.
But Surjakanta Mishra, senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, claimed in a press conference that the bundles of notes shown in the video pointed to clear wrongdoing. "Loot hoyeche hajar koti, khe che ke, hawai choti?" he asked rhetorically. If crores of rupees have been looted, did it disappear into thin air?
Recent developments at building a ground-level CPI(M)-Congress alliance have converted the West Bengal elections from a one-horse race to one that the Trinamool is now battling hard to win. This sting operation would further harm the Trinamool's image, already dented by the 2014 Sarada chit fund scam.
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