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The judge of a special PMLA court here on Tuesday severely reprimanded Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim and Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra for their later arrival in the court.
Both Hakim, also the state Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister, and Mitra were supposed to be present at the court on Tuesday in connection with the 2016 Narada sting video case, where both were seen allegedly accepting cash from the purported representative of a private entity against promises of doling out favours. As they arrived at the court late, when the judge had already occupied his chair and the proceedings had started, the judge, irked by their delay, severely reprimanded both of them. "I will have to wait for you. Are you such important VIPs? I know how to fix things," the judge was heard telling the minister and the MLA. The matter, however, ended there as Mitra immediately apologised and cited the immense traffic on the streets of Kolkata as the reason for his delay. However, former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Charropadhyay, who was also summoned at the court on Tuesday, reached the court well before the proceedings in the matter. Soon after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, Hakim, Mitra, Chattopadhyay and former Panchayat Affair & Rural Development minister Late Subrata Mukherjee, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths in connection with the Narada sting video case. Later the Enforcement Directorate (ED) too joined the investigation and named these four persons in its charge sheet. Meanwhile, Subrata Mukherjee died following a sudden and massive heart attack in November 2021, following which his name was removed from the case. --IANS src/vd ( 289 Words) 2023-02-28-19:10:04 (IANS)
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