Kolkata: The CBI on Thursday managed to acquire the voice samples of Trinamool Congress MP Sultan Ahmed and MLA Iqbal Ahmed from the archives of national channel Doordarshan after they refused to hand it over for a Voice Spectrographic Test for the probe into the Narada sting operation tapes.
Sources said CBI had requested the national channel for voice samples from their oath taking ceremonies. “We will now send the voice samples for audio forensic to a laboratory in Hyderabad to confirm whether it matches with the voice in Narada tapes,” an official said.
The probe agency decided to send the samples for a forensic test after both the leaders claimed that the video is morphed. Meanwhile, Sultan Ahmed appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Thursday in the same case. He was seen entering the ED office at Sat Lake with some documents early in the morning.
The ED had also summoned Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mayor Shovan Chatterjee and his brother Iqbal Ahmed, an MLA and KMC's deputy mayor. But the Mayor skipped the summon citing personal reasons and has been summoned again on July 25.
MP Iqbal Ahmed, meanwhile, has been hospitalised since June 16 after being he was grilled by the CBI for eight hours.
The sting operation was conducted by Narada news in West Bengal to expose the alleged corrupt practices of ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government. The sting was conducted under the supervision of the channel founder Mathew Samuel for a period of two years.
Ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal, Narada news released videos of sting operations, which sent ripples across the political fraternity across the country. The tapes showed 13 TMC ministers and leaders accepting bribes in return of favours/misusing official positions.
The sting operation had caused a major embarrassment for the Mamata Banerjee as it came at time when TMC was already facing criticism from the opposition parties over the Saradha chit-fund scam.
On March 17, 2017, Calcutta High Court had ordered a preliminary probe to be conducted by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the sting operation case. The court also directed the CBI to register an FIR against those who were involved in the case, if required.
On April 17, CBI filed charge sheet against 13 TMC leaders in the Narada sting case. All of them were booked under Section 120 B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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