BJP, Congress and CPI-M came together in Parliament to attack accused TMC members, demanding a probe into the matter.
BJP, Congress and CPI-M came together in Parliament to attack accused TMC members, demanding a probe into the matter.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday referred the issue of some TMC members allegedly accepting bribe, as shown in a purported sting operation, to the Ethics Committee, asking L K Advani-headed panel to examine and investigate the charges.
Speaker made the announcement immediately after the Question Hour, a day after BJP, Congress and CPI-M came together in Parliament to attack accused TMC members and demanding a probe into the matter.
An ethics committee in 2005 had terminated the membership of 11 MPs, 10 from the Lok Sabha and one from the Rajya Sabha, finding them guilty after a sting operation allegedly showed them accepting bribes to help fictitious private firms.
TMC leader Saugata Roy strongly protested the Speaker's decision, saying it was a -"unilateral decision-" and if it becomes a practice, then anybody will do a sting against members and inquiry would be ordered on such -"unverified-" contents.
However, he also said that he had full respect for Advani and added that the veteran BJP member will be fair.The Speaker, however, brushed aside his objections, saying such a reference to the 15-member Ethics Committee had been made earlier too.
A news portal’s ‘sting’ operation alleged that three West Bengal ministers, some MPs and MLAs had allegedly accepted bribes from a fictitious import-export company. The news portal, Narada News, released the tape of the operation, which it claimed to have conducted over the last two years.
The tape purportedly shows the ministers and legislators taking cash, said to be around Rs 5 lakhs each, in return for favours such as lobbying for a fictitious company “Impex Consultancy”. A journalist from the portal claimed to be a representative of the company to seek help from them.
The TMC was quick to dismiss the tapes as “doctored” and said the “dirty tricks departments” of its political rivals were behind the “smear campaign”. However, the BJP demanded the resignation of Mamata Banerjee and the CPI(M) sought President’s Rule in the state in the wake of the news portal’s “sting” operation.
The video, which triggered a major political storm in poll-bound West Bengal, could not have surfaced at a worse time for the ruling TMC. BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh showed the 24-minute-long video at the party office in Kolkata only hours before the arrival of the full bench of the Election Commission in the city.
The video showed Trinamool Congress vice-president Mukul Roy, MPs Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmed, Suvendu Adhikari, Prasun Banerjee and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, state ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, MLA Iqbal Ahmed, Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, former state transport minister and Saradha scam accused Madan Mitra, former Burdwan SP H.M.S. Mirza and other TMC leaders accepting wads of currency notes from a fake consulting firm to allow it to set up a company in West Bengal.
Singh claimed that the TMC-led West Bengal government had broken all records in corruption. The video showed the TMC leaders and the police officer accepting bribes of around Rs 73 lakhs from the fake consultancy firm. Around Rs 4 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs was used in each transaction, with the exception of Roy, who was offered Rs 20 lakhs. However, Roy could not be seen taking any money.
