Four big arrests in Bengal
The TLDR: After a nasty election and sweeping win for the ruling Trinamool party, the battle of Bengal continues—this time under the aegis of the Central Bureau of Investigation, which has arrested two Trinamool ministers and an MLA on corruption charges. In this chhota explainer on the Narada Tapes case, we look at the timing and significance of this bold action.
What are the Narada tapes?
The sting:
- In 2014, Matthew Samuel was working for Tehelka magazine when he carried out the news sting operation—aimed at capturing Trinamool leaders taking bribes on camera.
- He posed as the owner of a fictitious Chennai company called Impex Consultancy Solutions, and offered lavish wads of cash in exchange for favours. Samuel ended up with 52 hours of damning footage.
- The investigation—which had a budget of Rs 8 lakhs—was bankrolled by Tehelka publisher KD Singh, who was then a Trinamool Rajya Sabha member.
- Singh later denied all knowledge of the sting, and the story was never published in Tehelka.
- It was later released in 2016—on the eve of the Assembly elections and after Samuel quit Tehelka—on the Narada News channel in Bengal.
Caught on camera: Twelve Trinamool leaders—including seven Members of Parliament, four state ministers and one MLA—and a police officer. Of the seven MPs, one has since died, and two—Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari—are now prominent members of the BJP state party in Bengal. The police officer has long been suspended.
The legal timeline:
- In retaliation, the Trinamool-ruled state government charged Samuel with defamation, criminal conspiracy etc.—but was foiled by the courts.
- In 2017, the footage was certified as authentic by the Central Forensic Laboratory.
- The Calcutta High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to initiate an investigation.
- The CBI then filed a First Information Report against 12 Trinamool leaders for “criminal conspiracy”—and later added charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
- The Enforcement Directorate also launched its own probe but it appears to have gone nowhere…for now.
Ok, so what happened now?
The arrests: On May 9, Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar granted CBI’s request to prosecute Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee. All of them were state ministers during the Narada sting. Chatterjee defected to the BJP before the recent elections, and when denied a ticket, he quit the party. Hakim and Mukherjee are still state cabinet ministers, while Mitra is now an MLA.
The omissions: of course, are the two now-BJP heavyweights in Bengal. Both are MLAs. Mukul Roy is the national vice-president of the BJP. Suvendu Adhikari is the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.
The permissions: When prosecuting elected netas, the CBI has to get special permission. While greenlighting its request to arrest the four Trinamool leaders, Governor Dhankhar argued that since he officially appoints state cabinet ministers, he is also the “competent authority” to dole out permission to prosecute them. But to prosecute the former and current Trinamool MPs, CBI needs the nod of the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The CBI has requested permission to proceed against five of them—including Adhikari—but has not received it yet. Not mentioned in any CBI request: Mukul Roy.
Point to note: Both Birla and Dhankhar are BJP men.
The denial of bail: The four arrested politicians were first granted interim bail by a lower court, but it was stayed by the Calcutta High Court. A surprising decision since the CBI never asked for a stay. As a result, three of them are in jail—while the fourth has been checked into a hospital on medical grounds. The likely reason for the high court’s tough stance: Trinamool leaders, including CM Bannerjee, staged dharnas at the CBI office in protest of the arrests. According to a lawyer:
“When the matter is in the judicial arena, ruling party leaders should not have taken the issue to the streets. The court did take serious note of the matter. As a result, the high court felt it necessary to stay the CBI court’s order.”
Why arrest them now?
That’s the truly intriguing question. What’s the hurry after nearly five years of inaction? And why do this right after the elections? There are plenty of theories but without any hard evidence for now.
One: The BJP is being a sore loser. The use of the CBI reflects Home Minister Amit Shah’s frustration at the sweeping defeat in the Assembly elections.
Two: Some BJP insiders insist the arrests are necessary to protect its state party members from Trinamool violence:
“BJP leaders in Delhi, however, claimed the aggressive intervention in Bengal was to protect the party’s vote base and also the newly elected MLAs, alleging attack from the Trinamool members. ‘Our workers and leaders on the ground are being attacked. If we don’t protect them, then they will be compelled to desert the party,’ one BJP general secretary said.”
Three: Along the same theme, Trinamool insiders claim that the aim is to send a warning to possible defectors:
“Since May 2, dozens of their MLAs and several Bengal MPs have been reaching out, exploring opportunities of abandoning their sinking ship. Over the past few days, backchannel parleys had been firming up to facilitate the defection of five-seven BJP MLAs… This could have been an attempt at scaring those trying to leave.”
Four: This is one more opportunity to strengthen the argument for President’s rule. During the post-poll violence, Governor Dhankhar tweeted: “Cannot overlook such drifting from constitution @MamataOfficial. How can ruling party harmads (mercenaries) be law into themselves.” When Trinamool leaders protested the arrests, he again tweeted: “Total lawlessness & anarchy. Police and administration in silence mode. Hope you realise repercussions of such lawlessness and failure of constitutional mechanism.”
Point to note: No one seriously expects the BJP to deliver on the above threat. But it offers a handy stick to wave at Trinamool, which is also why Banerjee has written to the PM and President asking for a change of governor.
The bottomline: The evidence of political corruption is irrefutable, but so is the proof of blatant political expediency. Which side is the Indian voter supposed to choose?
Reading list
Indian Express and Outlook magazine have good explainers on the Narada Tapes. Also in Outlook: An in-depth interview with Samuel who carried out the news sting. The Telegraph has two good reads: One on the legal basis of the surprising High Court ruling on bail, and another on the political motives for the arrests.