Narada sting row: LS Ethic Committee seeks explanation from TMC MPs

New Delhi: The Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha has sought explanation from five Trinamool Congress MPs, who were allegedly caught in a sting operation accepting cash last month.

A source said that the panel, headed by BJP MP L K Advani, has asked the TMC members to explain their position in the matter.

The panel had earlier asked news portal Narada News, which had released video tapes of the sting, about the source of the clips and whether it stood by the sting operation.

The panel is understood to have sought the explanation from the MPs after getting the response of the news portal.

In the purported sting telecast last month, five TMC members from Lok Sabha -- Saugata Roy, Sultan Ahmad, Suvendu Adhikari, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Prasoon Banerjee, and Mukul Roy from Rajya Sabha, were shown allegedly accepting money from people representing a fictitious firm.

When contacted, TMC MP Sultan Ahmad today said, "I have heard about the notice. I am on tour campaigning for the election and I have yet not received the notice. When I get it, I will see."

The matter could kick up a political row as it has again come into focus at a time when Assembly polls are underway in West Bengal and BJP and other parties have launched an all-out attack against ruling TMC there.

While the matter saw BJP, Congress and Left making a common cause in Parliament and outside to target TMC on the issue, Mamata Banerjee's party has been maintaining that the charges were part of a political conspiracy ahead of the West Bengal polls.

On March 16, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had said that the bribery charges against TMC members would be probed by Lok Sabha's Committee on Ethics, adding that the "very serious" allegations impacted the "very credibility of Parliament".