Notice to Narada MPs
TT, New Delhi, April 14: The Lok Sabha ethics panel headed by L.K. Advani has sent notices seeking an explanation from five of the Trinamul MPs whose images feature on the Narada tapes that show them purportedly taking wads of cash from the agent of a fictitious company.
"The accused MPs have been asked to explain their position on the charges levelled against them. The committee's secretariat has issued the notices after going through the tapes of the sting operation," a member of the ethics panel said.
Five Trinamul Lok Sabha MPs - Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmad, Subhendu Adhikari, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Prasun Banerjee - were shown in the first instalment of the tapes. Footage released later showed images resembling Trinamul's Arambagh MP Aparupa Poddar.
Narada News chief editor Mathew Samuel had submitted the tapes to the ethics committee after he received a notice from the panel's secretariat. "I was given to understand that they would call for the version of the MPs after they verify the tapes. They must have verified the tapes, which is probably why the notices have been issued," Samuel said today.
Contacted, Ahmad confirmed that his office had received a letter from the ethics committee but said he was preoccupied with campaigning and had not seen the letter himself.
Dum Dum MP Saugata Roy said: "If the ethics committee has leaked the information about the notice, they must answer whether we have replied or not."
The notice to the Trinamul MPs is a preliminary one and, based on their written reply, the committee will decide on summoning them personally for questioning. The committee has not formally met to discuss the Narada sting and these preliminary notices are being sent out by the secretariat as part of due process.
Asked how long the procedures could take, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, a BJP MP from Nainital-Udhamsinghnagar and a member of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, said: "The chairman will call a meeting after they send their replies. It could take one month or more, depending on how prompt the replies are."
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have separate ethics panels that have the power to recommend even expulsion of members found guilty. The Narada issue was referred only to the Lok Sabha panel on March 16.
In the Lok Sabha committee, the BJP has the upper hand - unlike in the Rajya Sabha panel - which had fuelled speculation that the party may set the pace, depending on its equation with Mamata.
Advani, the committee chairman who has had to cope with a personal tragedy last week when his wife passed away, is known as a stickler for rules when it comes to matters of probity.
An earlier committee had taken only nine days to recommend the expulsion of MPs who were accused of taking money for asking questions in the House.
One of the key questions facing the Advani-led committee is whether it can look into the actions of MPs that preceded the formation of the current House.
MP Roy had opposed the controversy being referred to the ethics committee by the Speaker, saying "this matter relates to something which is dated April 2014".
Narada News, the portal that conducted the sting, has said the operation started before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It is not clear whether it spilled over into the term of the current Lok Sabha.
The current House is the 16th Lok Sabha that came into being on June 1, 2014. Till May 31, 2014, the mandate of the 15th Lok Sabha was in place although the general election results for the next House were decided 15 days earlier. All Trinamul MPs caught in the controversy were members of the 15th Lok Sabha too.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had justified the probe by the ethics committee stating that the allegations were "very serious and seek to impact on the very credibility of parliamentarians and Parliament...".
The Speaker had disregarded Roy's argument and said the issue would be clear in the report of the ethics committee.
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