The Narada sting operation, inseparable from Bengal’s political discourse and popular imagination since the summer of 2016, has been one of the two major “scams” — the other being the Saradha Group’s deposit-mobilisation default case — that the Opposition in the state has repeatedly attacked Mamata Banerjee and her party over.
The timeline of the Narada sting operation is as follows.
March 14, 2016: First shown at the BJP state headquarters in Calcutta, with days remaining for the Assembly elections.
The sting operator, Narada Media chief executive officer Mathew Samuel, claimed that the operation had been conducted before the Lok Sabha elections of 2014.
The operation showed persons resembling some Trinamul leaders taking “bribes” from Samuel, who posed as a businessman.
The leaders allegedly shown in the videos were Dum Dum MP Saugata Roy, (then) Tamluk MP Suvendu Adhikari, Rajya Sabha member Mukul Roy, Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Howrah MP Prasun Banerjee, Uluberia MP Sultan Ahmed and Arambagh MP Aparupa Poddar, besides ministers Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Sovan Chatterjee, Madan Mitra, and then Calcutta deputy mayor and Khanakul MLA Iqbal Ahmed.
Others, such as Trinamul leader Shanku Deb Panda and IPS officer S.M.H. Meerza, were also allegedly part of the videos.
February 2017: A public interest litigation was moved before Calcutta High Court seeking a CBI probe.
The case came up for hearing before then acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty. Senior counsel and CPM leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya moved the PIL and demanded the CBI probe to know the truth.
March 14, 2017: The division bench directed a CBI probe.
March 19, 2017: Both Trinamul and the state government moved the Supreme Court, demanding a stay on the CBI probe.
March 20, 2017: The Supreme Court upheld the high court’s decision.
March, 2019: Bhattacharyya again moved the high court and claimed that the CBI was unnecessarily delaying the filing of the chargesheet in the case.
In reply, the CBI counsels told the court that the chargesheet was ready and they were awaiting approval by the Lok Sabha Speaker to file charges against MPs.
January, 2021: The CBI sought approval from governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for prosecution of those who were MLAs, also ministers, in 2016.
May 7, 2021: Two days after Mamata Banerjee had taken oath as chief minister for the third consecutive term, Dhankhar gave his approval to the CBI.
