Lok Sabha ethics panel asks TMC MPs for explanation

The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha has sought explanations from five Trinamul Congress MPs after a sting operation by a news portal showed them accepting cash.

The ethics committee is headed by senior BJP leader and MP L.K. Advani. The committee in their communication has asked the TMC MPs to explain their position on the matter. Incidentally, the panel had earlier asked news portal Narada News, which had released video tapes of the sting, about the source of the clips and whether it stood by the sting operation. The panel has got a reply from the news portal, sources said.

Five TMC members from the Lok Sabha — Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmad, Suvendu Adhikari, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, and Prasoon Banerjee — and Mukul Roy from the Rajya Sabha were caught during the sting operation allegedly accepting money from people representing a fictitious Chennai-based firm.

The matter could kick up a political row as it has again come into focus at a time when Assembly polls are underway in West Bengal and the BJP and other parties have launched an all-out attack against the state’s ruling Trinamul Congress. While the matter saw the BJP, Congress and Left making common cause in Parliament and outside to target the TMC on the issue, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party have been maintaining that the charges are part of a political conspiracy ahead of the West Bengal polls.

On March 16, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had said the bribery charges against TMC members would be probed by the Lok Sabha’s Committee on Ethics. She had stated that the charges were “very serious” and impacted the “very credibility of Parliament”.

She had made the announcement, a day after the BJP, Congress and CPI(M) came together in Parliament to attack the TMC members allegedly shown in a sting and demanded an inquiry. “Certain acts of alleged unethical conduct on the part of some members of the House have been reported in the press and the matter was also raised by some members in the House yesterday,” Ms Mahajan had then said.