Calcutta HC names committee members to collect sting footage

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday announced the names of the members of a committee formed by it to collect video footage of a sting operation in which many leaders of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress were allegedly shown taking bribes.

The bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A. Banerjee on Monday announced the constitution of the three-member committee tasked with collecting the raw footage of the sting along with the recording devices from Narada News chief Mathew Samuel in Delhi who had conducted the sting.

The three members, who have been named in the committee are Jayanta Kole, Calcutta High Court Registrar (original side), Anil Kumar, Inspector General of state police (telecommunication) and Nagendra Prasad, SP, CBI.

Hearing public interest litigations seeking a CBI probe into the mater, the court earlier had directed Samuel to personally hand over the material to the court but the journalist had pleaded his inability to do so, claiming threat to his life.

Subsequently on Monday, the court constituted the committee, directing it to collect the material from Samuel in Delhi.

The portal released in March a set of videos wherein many Trinamool leaders, including parliamentarians, legislators and former union ministers, were allegedly seen accepting bribes from journalists posing as businessmen.

The Trinamool has called the tapes to be "doctored" and a "conspiracy by the opposition parties".