A day after the Calcutta High Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to initiate a preliminary inquiry into the Narada News sting videos, Opposition parties in West Bengal took to the streets on Saturday, demanding the resignation of the Trinamool Congress leaders who were purported to have been seen in the videos accepting bribe.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool said it had initiated the process of challenging the High Court order in the Supreme Court.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation witnessed violence and unruly scenes when the Opposition Congress and Left councillors demanded the resignation of Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who is one of the Trinamool leaders seen in the video. When Mr. Chatterjee rose to present the annual budget of the civic body, Congress and Left councillors shouted slogans against him. This resulted in a scuffle between members of the Opposition and the Trinamool councillors.
“A person whose name figured in the Narada scam is unfit to become Mayor. We demand his immediate resignation,” senior Congress leader Prakash Upadhyay said. Mr. Chatterjee countered Mr. Upadhyay saying the Trinamool had the people’s mandate.
“We are here because we have the mandate of the people. They tried to disrupt the proceedings, but could not stop us from presenting the budget,” he said. The Mayor is also in charge of States Housing, Environment and Fire and Emergency Services Department.
Earlier in the day, Congress supporters assembled in front of the Raj Bhavan and held protests demanding the resignation of Trinamool leaders seen in the videos.
Rallies were taken out by the women’s wing of the Left parties alleging ill-treatment in police custody.
Meanwhile, the CBI collected the documents pertaining to the Narada news videos as directed in the High Court order. The agency is likely to complete the preliminary inquiry by Tuesday as the court had given the agency 72 hours.
Trinamool move
“We have already started talking to legal professionals about the procedure to challenge the High Court order in the Supreme Court,” a senior Trinamool MP told The Hindu . Party chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that the Trinamool would approach the highest court to challenge the order.
“Everyone knows that the sting operation was published from the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] office [and] we will approach the higher judiciary,” she said on Friday. “It was planned. It was planted. The sting was published from the BJP office at the time of Assembly elections,” she said.
