Kolkata: Protests erupted in West Bengal after three Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, including two Cabinet ministers and an MLA, and a former minister were arrested this morning by the CBI in connection with the Narada sting case.
In a dramatic move, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee landed in the CBI office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata, where her arrested colleagues were kept, and offered to court arrest protesting the detention.
Mamta argued that the permission of the Assembly Speaker should have been taken before arresting the TMC leaders. She spent nearly six hours at Nizam Palace before leaving for a Cabinet meeting.
Defying lockdown norms, a large number of TMC supporters gathered and threw stones at the central forces deployed there. TMC supporters also held demonstrations outside the Raj Bhawan and at several other places.
The arrested leaders include Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee, Transport Minister Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, and Sobhan Chatterjee, former TMC minister.
The Narada sting operation carried out in 2014 allegedly showed a number of TMC leaders, including the four arrested, accepting bribe from journalist Mathew Samuel, posing as a businessman. Tribune India
