West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar has given the CBI permission to prosecute former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress leaders Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra and Subrata Mukherjee. This comes less than 24 hours before Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim are to be sworn in as ministers in West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet.
Subrata Mukherjee was elected the Protem Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on May 6. On the other hand, Sovan Chatterjee, who quit the TMC to join the BJP in the run-up to the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls, parted ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the declaration of the candidates’ list.
The CBI had in January sought sanction from the Governor to prosecute the four leaders in the Narada case. Three of these leaders were ministers in the state cabinet at the time, while Madan Mitra was Sports and Transport minister between 2011 and 2015.
A statement issued by Raj Bhavan said, “Governor of West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankar accorded sanction for prosecution in respect of Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, for the reason that all of them at the relevant time of commission of crime were holding the position of ministers in the government of West Bengal.”
