Narada sting: ED quizzes Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee for 8.5 hours

After being summoned thrice, West Bengal Minister for Environment, Fire and Emergency Services and Housing, Sovan Chatterjee, appeared at the ED office at CGO Complex in Kolkata's Salt Lake area at around 12 pm.

According to ED sources, the Central economic probe agency will call the TMC lawmaker again for interrogation as his answers could not satisfy investigators on Thursday.

While leaving ED office at around 8:30 pm, Sovan Chatterjee told reporters, "It's a political conspiracy against me, which has been started since 2016."

"I will appear before ED whenever they call me," Chatterjee added.

Earlier on Wednesday, West Bengal Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Bobby Hakim was interrogated by ED officials for nearly 4 hours 30 minutes in connection with the same case.

Meanwhile, the ED has also sent multiple notices to two other TMC lawmakers- Subrata Mukherjee and Suvendu Adhikari- in connection with the same case, asking them to appear before the agency on Aug 11 and Aug 22 respectively, sources said.

Since Mar 14 last year, news portal- Narada News- released several sting operation footage, where TMC's leaders, ministers, MPs and MLAs were exposed while allegedly taking bribes.

From the beginning, TMC leaderships had claimed that the sting footage was doctored and conspiracy of oppositions.  

After getting direction from the Calcutta High Court and Supreme Court, the CBI has started probe into the case.

Earlier on April 17, the investigation agency registered an FIR in connection with the case under several non-bailable sections against 12 influential leaders, cabinet ministers, MLAs and MPs of TMC and one senior IPS officer, who were seen taking bribes in the sting footage, reports said.

Besides CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), has registered a money laundering case in Narada sting and it's currently investigating the case. 

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)