Narada case: ED sends notice to 5 Trinamool leaders including Subhendu Adhikary, Sougata Roy; notice also to suspended IPS officer SMH Mirza

Enforcement Directorate, the Central government’s law enforcement, economic intelligence and investigating agency that probes financial crimes, has sent notices to five Trinamool Congress leaders in the Narada case. Notice was also sent to suspended IPS officer SMH Mirza. The five Trinamool Congress leaders are Subhendu Adhikary, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Aparupa Poddar and Ratna Chattopadhyay.

The ED had sent emails to the Trinamool Congress leaders and Mirza in July, seeking information on their properties and that of their family members. Apparently, there was lack of adequate response that has led the ED to send notices to them. Responses of them were not available.

The Narada videos were recorded by journalist Mathew Samuel, and in it several individuals resembling Mukul Roy and Sovon Chatterjee (who are now with the Bharatiya Janata Party) and Trinamool Congress’ Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Banerjee, Subhendu Adhikary, Aparupa Poddar, IPS officer SMH Mirza and others, were seen purportedly discussing receiving cash from a journalist who posed as a person with business interests in Bengal. The videos were shown on Narada TV and have come to be known as the Narada scandal. These were shown on television in 2016, prior to the Assembly elections in Bengal.

SMH Mirza was arrested by the CBI and is now on bail, and several Trinamool Congress leaders have been called and their voice recorded. Also seen in the videos was an individual resembling Sultan Ahmed, former party MP and an accused in the case, who died in September 2017.

Apart from the ED, the CBI is also probing the case.