The Calcutta High Court on Friday sent the Narada sting tapes to Chandigarh Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) after its counterpart in Hyderabad expressed its inability to analyse the credibility of the recordings, which purportedly showed people resembling senior TMC leaders taking money.
A division bench noted that CFSL, Hyderabad, where the Narada tapes were sent along with the devices used, had failed to retrieve the recordings that were allegedly in the hard disc of a laptop used for the purpose.
Mathew Samuel, editor of Narada News, had claimed that the alleged sting operation was recorded using an iPhone 6, transferred to a laptop and then to a pendrive. A report by CFSL, Hyderabad was submitted before the court in a sealed cover.
After going through the report, the Chief Justice said that according to the Hyderabad laboratory, it does not have the facility to analyse the exhibits in isolation.
The court then directed the three-member special committee to hand over the devices and a photocopy of the Hyderabad facility’s report to CFSL, Chandigarh within 10 days. The bench asked the Chandigarh facility to submit its report on the authenticity of the video footage within a month. The matter would come up for further hearing after six weeks.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had ordered a probe by Kolkata police into the Narada sting operation, in which several Trinamool Congress leaders were purportedly shown accepting bribes.
(With PTI inputs)
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