A special court on Wednesday ordered the issuance of summonses to Bengal ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim besides three others after taking cognizance of a complaint by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the Narada sting tapes case.
The special CBI judge ordered the appearance of the accused on November 16.
Apart from the two ministers and Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra, cognizance was also taken against former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee and suspended IPS officer SMH Mirza.
The court directed that the summonses to Mukherjee, Hakim and Mitra be served through the office of the West Bengal assembly speaker since the three are MLAs. Summonses to the other two are to be served directly at their addresses, the court directed.
The Narada sting operation was conducted by Narada news founder Mathew Samuel for over two years in West Bengal. Samuel formed a fictitious company and approached several TMC ministers, MPs and leaders for favours. Many of them were shown accepting money in TV footages.
The CBI had arrested Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee in the Narada bribery case in May this year.