Firhad Hakim Arrested: In a sharp turn of events, West Bengal Minister and Mamata Banerjee’s trusted lieutenant Firhad Hakim has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has been investigating the Narada bribery case. Firhad Hakim alleged that the CBI has arrested him in the Narada bribery case without proper sanction. The CBI has also arrested TMC MLAs Subrata Mukherjee and Madan Mitra and former TMC leader Sovan Chatterjee in the case.
The arrests comes as the CBI is likely to file its charge sheet in the sting tapes case. Soon after the news of their arrest became public, CM Mamata Banerjee along with other leaders reached the CBI office.
The CBI, earlier picked him up for questioning and took him to Nizam Palace. TMC leaders Madan Mitra and Shovon Chatterjee were also taken to Nizam Palace for questioning in the case and the CBI team also reached the house of another TMC minister Subrata Mukherjee. The CBI planned to interrogate them face-to-face.
The CBI reached the leaders’ houses early this morning and adequate central forces were deployed outside their home to avoid any untoward incident.
Notably, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had okayed investigations against Hakim and the three others leaders. While Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee are former ministers while Subrata Mukherjee is the minister of Panchayat and Rural Development, Public Enterprises and Industrial Reconstruction. Firhad Hakim is the minister of Transport and Housing.
The Narada Bribery Case is linked to a sting operation by a journalist in which some TMC leaders were caught on camera taking bribes. In 2014, a journalist went to Kolkata posing as a businessman planning to invest in Bengal and gave cash to 7 TMC MPs, four ministers, one MLA and a police officer. He recorded the entire operation and the tapes were released just before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal.