Supreme Court deals blow to Mamata in Narada case

New Delhi: In a huge setback to the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, the Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for a CBI probe into the Narada sting operation on alleged payoffs to several ruling Trinamul leaders and a senior IPS officer.

Ms Banerjee, who has been at the forefront of protests against the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation move, welcomed the court’s order. The Trinamul chief said the“judgment of the court is good and constructive”. She added: “We always welcome a constructive verdict.”

The Trinamul Congress had been at the forefront of the protests against demonetisation in the Winter Session of Parliament. Ms Banerjee held a joint rally with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal against the move, and the TMC also led at least three marches to Rashtrapati Bhavan on the issue.

The move was also welcomed by arch-rivals CPI(M), which also demanded that the West Bengal CM be brought under the purview of the CBI investigations into the Narada and Saradha scams. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul refused to interfere with an interim order passed by the Calcutta high court on March 17 directing the CBI to conduct a “preliminary enquiry” into the sting.

Senior counsels Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi had argued that the high court had been biased in passing the order. Mr Sibal opposed the CBI probe contending that targeting some states and not others would disturb the federal setup.

The court also termed as “most unfortunate” the grounds raised in a separate appeal by the Mamata Banerjee-led government against the high court order, and said the plea deserved “outright rejection”. The Supreme Court bench noted that the high court, while passing the order, had taken into consideration all the material placed before it and there was no infirmity in it. The order said: “We are fully satisfied that the rights are fully protected. If there are adverse findings and an FIR is required to be registered after the PE, the petitioners will have ample opportunity to assail the validity thereof. We are also satisfied that the investigating agency (CBI) should be permitted to carry out the probe.”

When Mr Sibal said the high court had already given its conclusion and adverse findings, the bench said these observations will be ignored and not weigh with the CBI  in its investigation. The bench extended the time limit, and said the probe shall be completed by the CBI within one month from March 17, when the high court passed the interim order.

The West Bengal government had sought the Supreme Court’s stay on the high court order that asked the CBI to conduct a preliminary enquiry into bribery allegations made by a news portal against Trinamul leaders, even as the CBI registered a preliminary enquiry on Monday. A preliminary enquiry is the first step in which the CBI assesses if the allegations have enough material for a case to be registered. A sting operation by narada.com had shown several Trinamul Congress leaders and a top bureaucrat purportedly receiving bribes from a person claiming to be the agent of a company interested in setting up projects in West Bengal.