Kolkata: The CBI made the first arrest Thursday in the Narada tapes scandal, as it took senior IPS officer SMH Mirza into custody, an agency official said. He was produced before a special CBI court here after a medical check-up, he said. The court has sent SMH Mirza to CBI custody for five days.
SMH Mirza was the Superintendent of Police of Burdwan district when the sting operation was conducted by Mathew Samuels of the ‘Narada News portal’.
“Earlier, too, we had questioned him (Mirza) on several occasions. Today, we arrested him following another round of questioning. He is one of the key links in Narada tapes scandal,” the CBI senior official said.
In the sting operation, the footage of which had surfaced ahead of 2016 West Bengal polls, persons resembling senior Trinamool Congress leaders and the IPS officer are seen accepting money from the representatives of a fictitious company in return for favours.
It should however, be stated here that Mirza is currently under suspension for close to a year.
In the past, the CBI had questioned him as to whether he had taken the money and whether he had done so on the instructions of any political leaders belonging to a particular political party. “Mirza had always been evasive in his replies, so it was necessary to take him into custody and question him. We want to interrogate him with other accused persons in the Narada case,” said the CBI official.
It should be stated here that quite a few top Trinamool Congress leaders including Member of Parliaments have been named in the case. The probe agency has already approached Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking sanction to prosecute three sitting TMC MPs namely Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh and Prasun Banerjee, and a former parliamentarian of the party, Suvendu Adhikari. Incidentally Suvendu Adhikari is a minister in the Mamta Banerjee’s government in West Bengal.
Reacting to Mirza’s arrest TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee said that he had nothing to say. “How can I comment regarding the arrest of each and every person… I have nothing to say,” he stated.
BJP’s president in West Bengal, Dilip Ghosh welcomed the arrest. “Finally the arrest has happened. I believe many more are the offing,” Ghosh said.
Agencies
