Five years ago, India’s eastern state of
West Bengal was witnessing a revolution of sorts. People disenchanted
with the over three-decade rule of the Left parties saw Mamata Banerjee,
as their savior. The activists of the anti-corruption movement saw her
as a beacon of hope, for a nation plagued by corruption and nepotism.
Mamata’s pitch for probity in public life found resonance with the
common man’s aspiration for a corruption free government.
Her unrelenting campaign paid off. And she and her Trinamool Congress
or TMC rode to power with a historic mandate. But the euphoria of the
new government soon began to fade.
Mamata government was beleaguered by the Sarada chit fund scam in
which prominent leaders of her TMC were involved. This compelled us to
visit the corridors of power in Bengal.
Our investigations, spread over two years, laid bare the fact that,
far from being transparent, both Mamata’s government as well as her
party, the TMC, is run by perhaps the most corrupt elements in the
country. What we recorded on camera is shocking…
Here almost all leaders of TMC were found willing to flout any rule of the state for a bundle of cash.
We started our investigation before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Despite the alleged involvement in the Sarada chit fund scam, TMC was
projected to be a clear winner in most of the Lok Sabha. This was
despite allegations that the Mamata government was protecting some of
the accused in the Sarada scam.
The way in which chief minister Mamata Banerjee came out in defence of a senior police officer Syed M H Mirza was very telling.
She took on the independent Election Commission against Mirza’s
transfer from Burdwan district. Our investigations took off from there.
We formed a fictitious company -Impex Consultancy- and approached
several ministers and Trinamool leaders to seek favours for the company.
This was an attempt to unravel what is happening behind closed doors.
We also met Mirza. The senior police official was very forthcoming
and ‘business friendly’. He acknowledged that he is a key person who
collects funds for the Trinamool Congress. He even claimed that he is
the most trusted lieutenant of former railway minister Mukul Roy. Mukul
was the chief lieutenant of Mamata Banerjee.
Mirza’s claims led us to the house of Mukul Roy. He was not willing
to take money from us directly. He told us to go to his office.
mirzaMirza : Mukul da is very frank with me,
MS : For deals and everything?
Mirza : I have already arranged 60 for him. Besides this 60.When we met
in the morning, he just woke up. He woke up with my call only.
MS :Ok
Mirza : I was trying to call him since 8, Two missed calls, I have sent an SMS then. Another chap had gone then.
MS : Yes. I have seen you with one brief case
Mirza : But he refused to take. He told Just go to Mirza. Keep it there, i will take from there.
Mirza :It is not advised to keep such hard cash with me
MS : He is scared of some enforcement raid, right?
Mirza : Thats why he was saying now that election is there now only that
enforcement raid. And rather than expenditure is there, it matters.
This expenditure observer , if they got a clue or something this party
will be wiped out. This party will go for a sixer
This recording was done when Mukul was the second in command of the
party. His office was full of people. We could not record there, due to
the frisking, before entering his office.
mukul-royMukul: Go immediately. And Talk to Mirza Only (05:28 to 05:54)
I have already spoken to Mirza. We will be friends. And then You should
go to Burdwan. Talk to my SP. Mirza. He will keep the relation between
me and you. Everything can be communicated through Mirza.
Mukul Roy : You can go and talk to Mirza. Go, I have
informed Mirza. He is here somewhere. Call him before going, You can go
and give it to Mirza
Mukul : Give it to My office. Iam not taking it straight away. I will tell my men, so you give it to them
MS: Your office, where exactly?
Mukul : 61 Elgin Road, Come after an hour, Its just near to this read
MS: I have 20 lakhs, I will go to your office and will give
You will be there no?
Mukul : Yes, I will be there
Mamata Banerjee many a times used to flaunt her association with
Subrarta Mukherjee. Now Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development,
Mamata considers Subrata as her mentor.
But we saw the true nature of the mentor. He was very eager to help
us in any way, of course, after pocketing all the money offered to him.
subrata-mukharjeesultan-ahmedMS: Sir, this is 4. I will give the one later
Subrata : Ok
Former Union Minister and Member of Parliament Sultan Ahmed is the
Muslim face of the party. But above all he is considered to be the Mr
Clean of Bengal politics. We witnessed what lies behind the carefully
constructed image of honesty and integrity, when we met Sultan Ahmed to
seek favours from the state government and his party.
He had no qualms in offering any help after receiving the money we offered.
MS: I will give 5 but you have to do our work. Sir,
arranging money was too difficult because of the strike. Yesterday and
today, arranging money was too difficult and election is very near.
Sultan : Everyday there is more expenditure
MS: You want more?
Sultan : If you have
MS: I will give 5 more. But sir you have to give our work also
Sultan : My assistance is there for whatever you do
We have about 52 hours of footage of this operation. What we
understood after analyzing it again and again is that all levels of the
leadership of the Trinamool Congress were more than willing to side step
the norms, circumvent laws to extend illegal help to those who offer
money.
1) MH Ahmed Mirza(Senior police officer) – 5 Lakh
2) Mukul Roy(former union and railway minister) – 20 Lakh
3) Subrata Mukherjee(Minister for panchayat and rural dvpt) – 5 Lakh
4) Sultan Ahmed(former union minister and MP) – 5 Lakh
5) Sugata Roy(former union minister) – 5 Lakh
6) Suvendhu Adhikari(TMC youth wing president) – 5 Lakh
7) Kakoli Ghosh Dastikar(political leader) – 4 Lakh
8) Prasoon Banerjee(MP) – 4 Lakh
9) Suvon Chatterjee(Mayor of kolkata) – 5 Lakh
10) Madan Mitra(former minister of transport) – 5 Lakh
11) Iqbal Ahmed( Member of west Bengal assembly) – 5 Lakh
12) Farhad hakim(Minister of urban dvpt) – 5 Lakh
Sugata Roy was a Physics professor and national science talent search
scholar before he entered politics. He was a former minister in the
Manmohan Singh government and is party’s face on national television.
But Sugata Roy’s scholarship did not deter him from accepting the bribe
given for providing Impex Consultancy all help.
sugata-royMS: This is four, this is 1000.. Total Five lakhs
Roy : You are Impex
MS: Impex consultancy
Roy : And your name is?
MS : Santosh Shankaran
Sukhanto Adhikari is known as the young turk of the TMC. The new
generation leader was agreed to help Impex Consultancy for a few bundle
of currency notes.
MS: Five lakh rupees sir
Sukhanto : Ok
The second most important women leader in Trinamool Congress after
Mamata is Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. A doctor by profession, Kakoli Ghosh is
a member of the Parliament. Her husband is minister in the Mamata
cabinet. Kakoli and former football player and MP Prasoon Banerjee were
also willing to dole out favours for money.
kakoli-ghoshMS: Anything more?
Kakoli : Nothing at the moment
Sovan Chatterjee is an important leader and very close to Mamata
Banerjee’s family. The Mayor of Kolkata, after receiving money, promised
to introduce us to all the power centres. He also offered us all help
as the Mayor of Kolkata.
sovan-chatterjeMS : Four lakh rupees. Tomorrow i will give five lakhs
Sovan : For these many years, I have got dollars
MS: Just introduce me
Sovan : After the election, i can introduce
Madan Mitra, former minister in the Mamata cabinet, was forced to
resign after the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI arrested him for
his involvement in the Sarada Chit fund scam. We met him before his
involvement in the scam came out in the open. His lust for money was
very evident when we approached him…..
madan-mitraMS: Total five lakhs.
Madan : Keep the money aside. Just go to that. Come here and open that shelf
Karan Sharma, Trinamool Congress youth wing or Yuva President, is a
close aide and confidante of Abhisek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata
Banerjee
Karan Sharma and his partner Sujoy Krishna met us at Abhishek’s plush
office. They assured us all of our work would be done through Abhishek
and Mamata.
Sujoy : There will be an official sitting, today im sitting here
unofficially. This office is empty, nobody is there. we will sit
officially
Karan : You are looking for the right man, he is the right hand, Iam
telling you. Because there are many people who coming to bannerjee
looking for help. Whenever there is anything that involves the benefit
of the state. You can say he is the seasoned spokesperson . He is the
right hand. You can always speak to Mr. Basu and he will help you
Sujoy : After sitting with you i will organise the meeting with Ministers and from there you will get positive response
sujay-krishna-and-jarn-sharma
Iqbal Ahmed, Member of the West Bengal Assembly, who
raises funds for himself and the Trinamool, took five lakhs or five
hundred thousand Indian rupees from us, when we met him at his
residence.
Iqbal Ahmed, MLA, took five Lakh from us when we met him at his residence.
iqbal-ahmedMS : Two, Three, four, five are you seeing the currency. 1000/-, 500/-
Iqbal : Please give Subrata Mukherjee’s You have to pay him one lakh
Firhad Hakkim, the Urban development minister is another leader with a clean image.
Also called Bobby Hakkim, Firhad Hakkim turned out to be a tough
negotiator. He said he was not interested in peanuts and took nothing
less than five lakhs. We paid him what he demanded.
Farhad : We dont deal with peanuts. What would be left for kids if we deal with small stuffs?. Don’t even touch that
Shanku Pandey, who is most often seen with Mamata, is the leader of
the TMC Chathra Parishad or Student wing. When we approached him, his
demand was outrageous.
farhanHe wanted a stake in all the projects that our fictitious
company would begin in Bengal. He says for him politics is business.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsWCZ4NNZhg&feature=youtu.be
As Bengal prepares for the next election, it’s time to take stock of
the situation. Did Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress which rode
to power on the common man’s urge for change, live up to their
expectations? Or did TMC betray their historic mandate?
X-Files is an attempt to lay bare what happens in the corridors of
power. It is also an attempt to show, how a few wads of currency can get
things moving faster in India’s eastern state of West Bengal.
Five years ago, people of West Bengal changed the course of history.
It’s again at a threshold. Will the people of Bengal script another change?
Investigated and Written by Mathew Samuel & Angel Abraham
courtesy: naradanews.com
Our Comments
We have got this news from social media. We have some questions about
the video. May be the truth will come soon. Just like Kanhaiya’s
doctored videos. We have to wait until then. – kolkata24x7
