The Calcutta High Court has given the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) four months to conclude its investigation against Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Aparupa Poddar, also known as Afrin Ali, in connection with the 2016 Narada sting operation. Poddar had approached Justice Rajasekhar Mantha with a plea to expunge her name from the FIR filed by the CBI, saying that years have passed since the agency started investigating the matter and nothing has surfaced. She argued that it has resulted in the maligning of her image.
Justice Mantha set a four-month deadline for completing the probe against Poddar but only for her and not the others accused in the case. He noted that if the CBI cannot complete the investigation against Poddar within this timeframe, her name will be removed from the investigation.
The Narada sting operation took place just before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections and revealed several Trinamool leaders and an IPS officer receiving money in exchange for promises of favors. Although opposition forces used the sting in their campaign against the ruling Trinamool Congress, they were reelected with a significant majority.
After the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, the CBI arrested state municipal affairs and urban development minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim, then state panchayat affairs and rural development minister Late Subrata Mukherjee, Trinamool Congress legislator Madan Mitra, and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee in connection with the same case. All four of them were seen receiving cash in the sting videos.
