West Bengal: Days after MP Saugata Roy featured in Narada sting, Trinamool nominated him to House panel

In the video released on March 14, Roy was purportedly seen accepting a bundle of currency notes from the representatives of a fictitious company.

Four days before that, a notice had been brought out asking for nominations to the committee that among other things, examines the accounts of public undertakings, including Navratna companies, and looks into their autonomy and efficiency. While last date for filing nominations was March 25, the last date of withdrawal was March 28 — two weeks after the video was made public. Roy was one of the 19 people who submitted their nominations for the 15 members in the committee from the Lower House.

An MP’s application to a post in a Parliamentary committee has to be accompanied by a letter from his or her party endorsing that candidature. The TMC gave that endorsement to Roy several days after the video was in circulation and demands were already afoot for the matter to be referred to the ethics committee of the Lok Sabha. The matter has since been referred to the Committee that has already served notices to the five MPs shown in the video, including Roy.

While addressing an election rally earlier this week, the West Bengal Chief Minister had said: “Had I known earlier about these videos, I would not have given them tickets. But now I cannot do anything.”

Trinamool national spokesman Derek O’Brien refused to comment on the matter. However, party sources clearly said that there was no question of any changes being made in any decisions or of Roy opting out.

The Narada video of March 14 had featured 11 Trinamool leaders, six of them MPs, allegedly accepting cash from a fictitious company. The MPs who featured in that video were Mukul Roy, Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sultan Ahmed, Suvendu Adhikari and Prasun Banerjee. Subsequently one more was released featuring Aparupa Poddar.

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