Narada sting was a journalistic exercise, not political: Mathew Samuel

Mathew Samuel, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Narada News, on Tuesday said that the sting operation which he conducted during the parliament election in 2010 was simply journalistic and nothing political.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed an FIR against 13 persons, including senior leaders of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress who were purportedly seen taking money, in the Narada case.

Following this, TMC leader Sovandeb Chatterjee alleged that the move was a prearranged attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to malign TMC's image so that they cannot get success in the election.

Chatterjee told ANI, "We will tackle the situation politically and because this is a political game by BJP. People of West Bengal did not believe it. They voted in favour of TMC and got votes in huge margin to 211 seats in last election,"

Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, Samuel said, "The TMC party has put false allegations on me. It is actually a kind of harassment. They want to put me inside because I did the sting during the parliament election in 2010 and published the same in my website. It is just journalistic, nothing political."

In contradiction to Sovandeb's assertion, polit bureau member of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Hannan Mollah rubbished West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegations of CBI FIR as 'political game' by the BJP, saying that it was a natural result of the enquiry and therefore, the state government should pursue it honestly and allow the CBI to punish the culprit.

Samuel had earlier released three sets of videos of its sting operation, where top TMC leaders were allegedly seen accepting bribes from journalists posing as businessmen.

The ruling party had dismissed the allegation citing that the tapes are 'doctored'.

The sting operation video was released by the portal on March 14, 2016, just ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections.