Narada FIIR: Bengal opposition hits the streets for arrest of Trinamool leaders

Sharpening their attack against the ruling Trinamool Congress, West Bengal opposition parties on Tuesday hit the streets across the state demanding arrest of the leaders booked by the CBI in the Narada sting footage case.

The CPI-M led Left Front took out a procession from central Kolkata's Esplanade to Entally calling for the sacking of the four state ministers including Mayor Sovan Chattejree and resignation of the six MPs and one legislator seen accepting money in the Narada footage.

They also demanded strong action against IPS officer S.M.H. Mirza, who was seen in the sting footage and, according to the NaradaA website, described himself as a "key person who collects funds for the Trinamool Congress".

Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said the Central Bureau of Investigation should take all the 12 Trinamool leaders figuring in the FIR filed by the agency on Monday. "They are all influential people. They may try to influence the probe is they are allowed to roam freely."

Targeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Mishra said it was surprising that even after CBI filed the FIR, "she is assuring the accused that there is nothing to worry."

Mishra wondered whether the Chief Minister feels emboldened after her recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

"Is it her meeting with the prime minister that makes her so confident?" he asked.

Mishra also demanded that the part of the Narada footage which is yet to come to the public domain should be looked into by the CBI.

"There are many untold stories in the Narada tapes. They should be brought before then public so as to nail the Trinamool leaders whose names have not yet been implicated in the scandal.

"They have to be interrogated, prosecuted and sentenced."

Many top leaders of the LF partners, including those of the CPI-M, Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party participated in the procession.

Echoing Mishra, LF chairman Biman Bose also voiced his demand for arrest of all the Trinamool leaders featuring in the Narada FIR.

"We will go on protesting till they resign. There has to be a mass pressure on them to quit," he said.

The Forward Bloc also brought out rallies in Hooghly and Purulia districts urging the CBI to arrest all the accused.

Meanwhile, members of the Bharatiya Janata Party intellectual cell took out a rally from Rani Rashmoni Road to the Raj Bhawan condemning the Trinamool and demanding the arrest of its leaders booked by the CBI.

The Narada controversy erupted in election-bound West Bengal in March last year when Narada News portal uploaded video footage purportedly showing the Trinamool leaders receiving money in exchange of favours to a fictitious company.

The Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI preliminary inquiry intoAtheAcase on March 17, and asked the federal investigation agency to submit the report within 72 hours.

Trinamool appealed to the Supreme Court on March 21, but the apex court refused to interfere, even as it extended the deadline for the preliminary probe to one month.

--IANS

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