Kolkata (IANS) | Justice Rajasekhar of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted four months time to the CBI to complete its probe into the Narada sting operation against Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Aparupa Poddar alias Afreen Ali. On 18 April, Poddar approached the High Court with a plea to have his name removed from the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Narada sting video case of 2016.
Poddar, the Trinamool Congress MP from Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency in Hooghly district, said in her petition that several years have passed since the central agency started probing the case and nothing concrete has come to the fore in the matter. In such a situation, his image is being tarnished due to his name being included in the FIR.
Passing the order on his plea, Justice Mantha set a time limit of four months to complete the probe against Poddar. However, Justice Mantha clearly mentioned that the four-month time limit is only for Poddar and not for other accused in the case. He also observed that if the central agency is unable to complete the investigation against Poddar in the case, then his name will be taken out of the purview of the investigation.
The Narada video sting operation came to light just before the 2016 West Bengal assembly elections. It showed several Trinamool leaders and an IPS officer receiving money in return for favours.
Although opposition forces such as the Left Front-Congress alliance and the BJP used the sting extensively in their campaign against the ruling Trinamool Congress, the people of the state brought back Mamata Banerjee and her party with a thumping majority in the assembly elections that year.
Soon after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the CBI has booked the state’s Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, the then State Panchayat Affairs and Rural Development Minister, late Subrata Mukherjee, Trinamool Congress MLAs Madan Mitra and Former Mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee arrested. All four are seen taking cash in the sting video.
–IANS
