The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested Transport and Housing Minister, Firhad Hakim; Panchayat Minister, Subrata Mukherjee; TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chattopadhyay in the Narada bribery case. The move came days after Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar gave his consent to the CBI for filing a chargesheet against the four accused and sanctioned prosecution against them. All four were taken on Monday morning to the CBI by central forces. To challenge their arrest, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spent six hours at the CBI office and dared the investigators to arrest her. 

In a brief interaction with reporters outside the CBI office at Nizam Palace, Madan Mitra raised the question that his party has been raising ever since the arrests yesterday – why no action against Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, former Trinamool leaders who were also caught in the Narada sting but later joined the BJP.

“I have full faith in the judiciary. The BJP can employ anybody to harass me,” said Firhad Hakim, who wept on camera saying he “could not finish his job of helping people of the city in the pandemic”.

Sovan Chatterjee lashed out: “I am not a dacoit. I have not done anything wrong that the CBI could enter my bedroom to arrest me?”

“We all are bad men but not Mukul (Roy) and Suvendu (Adhikari),” said Madan Mitra.

Around 4 am, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee were shifted to hospital after they complained of breathlessness. Subrata Mukherjee was also taken to hospital briefly for a medical examination and then sent back to jail. 

The Narada sting operation was conducted by Narada news founder Mathew Samuel for over two years in West Bengal. Conducted in 2014 for the news magazine Tehelka, it was published on a private news website Narada News months before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections. Samuel is the former managing editor of Tehelka.

As part of the operation, Samuel formed a fictitious company named Impex Consultancy Solutions and approached several TMC ministers, MPs and leaders, asking them for favours in return for money. In the 52-hour footage photographed by Samuel and his colleague Angel Abraham, then TMC MPs Mukul Roy, Sougata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Bannerjee, Suvendu Adhikari, Aparupa Poddar and Sultan Ahmad (he died in 2017), and state ministers Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and Iqbal Ahmed were seen accepting alleged bribes in the form of wads of cash in exchange for extending unofficial favours for Impex Consultancy Solutions, which was floated by Samuel himself.

IPS HMS Mirza (now suspended) was also seen taking cash from Samuel. TMC leader Shanku Deb Panda was also seen asking for shares in Samuel’s fictitious company in exchange of promised favours.

The state government initiated its own probe which booked Samuel under multiple sections of the IPC 469 (forgery to harm reputation), 500 (defamation), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) etc. On August 5, 2016, the High Court stayed the state probe for ad infimum, observing that the police cannot run a concurrent investigation along with a court-monitored probe. Although Mukul Roy (who is now the national vice-president of the BJP) was not seen accepting cash in the video but he was seen asking Samuel to visit his party office with the promised cash. Samuel claimed that K. D. Singh, TMC Rajya Sabha MP and majority owner of Tehelka, knew and funded the entire operation. Samuel claimed that the budget of the operation was initially set at ₹2,500,000 but was later increased to ₹8,000,000. Singh, however, refuted his involvement with any aspect of the sting.

On May 9, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, on a request by the CBI, sanctioned the prosecution of Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee. The statement issued by the officer on special duty (communication), Raj Bhavan, read, “Honourable governor is the competent authority to accord sanction in terms of law as he happens to be the appointing authority for such ministers in terms of Article 164 of the Constitution,” The Narada tapes, released ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls in the state, allegedly showed several TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in exchange of promised favours. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017.

India on Sunday recorded 311,170 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to Union health ministry dashboard. As many as 4,077 new deaths were also registered. The country has so far reported a total of 24.68 million cases and 270,284 deaths. India is currently reeling under a second Covid-19 wave. The global Covid-19 disease caseload has climbed to 163,697,584 of which 3,392,646 people have died and 142,146,432 have recovered, according to worldometers.info. The United States continues to remain the worst-hit country from the pandemic with 33,713,078 cases and 600,139 deaths respectively. Several states in the country are under lockdown again to curb the spread of this deadly infection.  Nation’s capital Delhi is in complete lockdown till 24^th May. West Bengal government declared a lockdown of 15 days from 16^th-30^th May. Meanwhile, Karnataka government is about to extend their lockdown beyond 24^th.  The Tamil Nadu government as well imposed a complete lockdown in the state from May 10 to May 24. Whereas, Maharashtra government has put the state under strict lockdown till 1^st June, to get a grip of the insanely increasing COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, a drug, called 2-deoxy-D-glucose or 2-DG, was developed by a DRDO lab in collaboration with the Hyderabad-based pharma giant, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the country’s top drug regulator, has approved the medicine for emergency use. Earlier, the DCGI had granted permission for emergency use of the 2-DG drug as adjunct therapy in moderate-to-severe Covid patients.

This anti-coronavirus drug developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be launched on 17^th May, 2021, with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh distributing around 10,000 doses to some hospitals in the national capital. This 2-DG drug developed by DRDO is a big breakthrough and could be a game-changer in the battle against the pandemic as it helps in faster recovery of the hospitalised patients and reduces oxygen dependence. The drug comes in powder form in sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production.

The results of clinical trials, which were conducted in several states, showed that this 2-DG molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and also reduces oxygen dependence. An official said, “Its selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique.”

The DCGI stated that in Phase 2A trials conducted from May to October 2020 in 6 hospitals and Phase 2B in 11 hospitals across the country, the drug was found to be safe in treating Covid patients and its efficacy was shown in their faster recovery. In the Phase 3 trials held from December 2020 to March 2021 at 27 hospitals in 10 states on 220 patients, results showed they improved symptomatically faster, with reduced dependency on oxygen supply. The Centre on Sunday said that more than 1.84 crore doses of coronavirus vaccines were available with states and they will receive nearly 51 lakh more over the next three days.

According to Johns Hopkins University, globally, the coronavirus has now infected 16.22 crore people and killed over 33.65 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019.

Hindus revere the Ganga as the holiest of rivers but consigning bodies to it is not part of any religion’s traditions, including Hinduism. On Monday, scores of dead bodies had been washed up on the banks of Ganga in Ghazipur and Ballia districts. Bodies were also found in Buxar in Bihar. A second wave of the virus is ravaging parts of India, with deaths rising significantly in recent weeks. Most of the country’s crematoriums have run out of spaces. Four days after dead bodies of suspected Covid patients were spotted floating on the Ganga river in eastern UP and Bihar, reports have now shown that multiple bodies have been buried in sand at two locations along the Ganga river in Unnao district. Uttar Pradesh is one of the India’s most populous state. Local resident Chandra Mohan said: “Private hospitals are looting people. Common people are not left with money to pay a priest and spend more on cremation at the river bank. They are asking 2,000 rupees just to get the corpse out of the ambulance. The river has become their last recourse so people are immersing corpses in the river.”

India’s second COVID-19 wave seems to have flattened but the climb down will be a more prolonged, long drawn-out process than the first and will possibly run till July, said eminent virologist Shahid Jameel. According to the scientist, COVID-19 cases in the second wave also won’t come down in as steady a fashion as they did after the first wave. 

“In the first wave, we did see a steady decline. But remember… this time we are starting from a higher number. Instead of 96,000-97,000 cases, we are starting from over 400,000. So it will take that much longer. And during the process at every time point, you’ll have a lot of cases,” Jameel explained.

In his view, the actual mortality data for India is completely wrong. “… not because of some evil design by someone or for a group of people or the state or whatever. But the way we record data I think is faulty.”

Unnao District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar said, “Some people do not burn the bodies but bury them in the sand by the river. After I got information, I have sent officials to the spot. I have asked them to carry out an enquiry and we will take action.” Shirish Gupta, a local businessman, said: “Monsoon is barely a month away and once the Ganga river becomes flooded with water, these bodies will be washed ashore. The district administration should exhume the bodies and perform a proper cremation.” The central government has taken serious note of the issue, with Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday seeking an investigation by both states. “Floating bodies in Ganga in Buxar, Bihar is unfortunate. It is surely a matter of investigation. [Narendra] Modi government is committed to maintaining piety and continuity of mother Ganga. States [Bihar and UP] concerned must take cognizance of the matter immediately,” he tweeted. Eversince the death toll in the ongoing pandemic began rising, the prices of performing cremation have also shot up.

“A package for cremation according to Hindu rites, is now between Rs 15,000 to 20,000. It is obvious that poor people cannot afford it and they are opting for riverside burials,” said Gupta.

 Locals believe the shortage of wood for funeral pyres might be one reason why corpses are being abandoned in this manner. They have also said no arrangements are being made for the last rites by officials, and that the stench continues to haunt them, triggering health concerns.

Many believe the abandoned bodies can be linked to deaths that have not made it to official Covid figures in what may be a proof of an escalating Covid crisis.

As the severe second wave of COVID-19 infections wreaks havoc in the country, one of the most pressing concerns has been a shortage of medical oxygen to treat patients. Numerous reports have been coming in of COVID-19 patients dying not of the disease itself, but because they were unable to get the oxygen support needed even while in hospital. So far, there are details of 178 deaths in which the hospital authorities or local administrations have confirmed oxygen shortage as the proximate cause, and another 70 deaths in which the patients’ families have alleged that the lack of oxygen was to blame but the authorities have not confirmed the allegation.

Several hospitals have even moved high courts asking for their oxygen supply to be replenished on an emergency basis. State governments, too, have pointed fingers both at each other and at the Centre, blaming other governments for blocking supplies. The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to supply 700 metric tonnes of medical oxygen to Delhi everyday till further orders as top hospitals in the national capital have been struggling to tackle an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases. A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the submission of the Delhi government on deficient supply of oxygen to the national capital and warned that it will pass orders against officials concerned if 700 MT of LMO is not supplied daily.

“We want 700 MT of oxygen to be supplied to Delhi on a daily basis and we mean business. It has to be supplied and we don’t want to be coercive. Our order will take time to be uploaded by 3 pm. But you proceed and arrange the oxygen,” said Justice DY Chandrachud according to the Bar and Bench.

The Supreme Court said it has constituted an expert panel to conduct an oxygen audit to understand the need of oxygen for every state. “Yesterday we noticed lot of caveats on tankers. We are not going into this… we are not drivers,” Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud told the centre this morning. “If nothing is to be hidden, let it come before the nation how allocation and distribution is done transparently by the centre,” the court had said, adding, “The centre continues to be in contempt for not supplying 700 tonnes of oxygen to Delhi.”

Rahul Mehra, the counsel for the Delhi government said that as of today, at 9 am, 89 MT of oxygen was received by the Delhi government while 16 MT was in transit. On Thursday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Delhi consumes 700 tonnes of oxygen per day. “Delhi’s daily requirement of oxygen is 700 tonnes. We were constantly asking the central government that at least that much oxygen should be given to us. For the first time yesterday, Delhi got 730 tonnes of oxygen,” he had written. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart on behalf of Delhiites. I request you that Delhi should be given at least this much of oxygen on a daily basis and there should not be any reduction in this quantity. The whole of Delhi will be grateful to you,” he said. 

Last week, 12 people, including a doctor, died at Delhi’s Batra Hospital on Saturday after the facility ran out of oxygen. A week before that 25 people died due to shortage of low oxygen pressure at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in the city. However, the hospital later said the cause of death of 21 of those patients could not be ascertained by an expert committee which probed the incident.

All India Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee led her party to one of its biggest political victories in the past three decades by single-handedly stopping the BJP juggernaut in Bengal, paving the way for her return as Chief Minister for a third consecutive term. Mamata Banerjee on Sunday won a landslide victory in Bengal but lost in a cliffhanger in Nandigram to the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, her former protege. “I accept the verdict in Nandigram – it is not a big deal. Don’t worry,” said the Chief Minister, declaring, however, that she would approach the court over “mischief”. The Nandigram assembly constituency in East Midnapore district, about 125 km from Kolkata, was considered the biggest battleground where sitting chief minister Mamata Banerjee had challenged her turncoat.

Several netizens have posted a picture of Mamata and Suvendu with a caption in Hindi which translates to, “Is she shameless? She has been defeated by 1,622 votes, but will now take back her words as she’d said she would quit politics if defeated in Nandigram.” Though, the viral claim is fake. It was not Mamata but BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari who had said that he would defeat her by 50,000 votes or quit politics. Suvendu beat Mamata in Nandigram by a narrow margin of 1,956 votes.

Suvendu Adhikari, the former member and a trusted associate of Mamata Banerjee ditched her to cross over to the BJP He became an MLA in the constituency and for years, the Adhikari family had a firm grip over Nandigram. In this election, he was weaponised by the BJP against the Chief Minister, who was pitched as an “outsider” in Nandigram.

The Nandigram controversy started when the 66-year-old Chief Minister suffered a leg injury; she accused the BJP of a role in the incident, in which her leg was allegedly crushed by her car door by the press of a large crowd and she was bed ridden for several days. For the rest of the campaign, she was in a wheelchair, taking on the collective might of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and multiple BJP leaders from outside.

Suvendu Adhikari was declared winner by 1,956 votes, not long after the Trinamool tweeted: “The counting process for Nandigram has not been completed. Please do not speculate.” Late in the night, the Election Commission rejected the party’s request for a recount. When the results seemed to be going the way of her former lieutenant, she shrugged it off. In a tweet on Sunday, Mr Adhikari thanked the “great people of Nandigram for their love, trust, blessings, and support”.

“Let the Nandigram people give whatever verdict they want, I accept that. Nandigram was a sacrifice that was needed in the larger victory. We have won the state,” she said.

Suvendu Adhikari’s switch to the BJP in December led to mass defections that left Ms Banerjee without many of her loyal aides.

“Whatever happened is for the best. I will not have to go that far regularly now, I am saved in that way. But I will go to the court because I have heard there were some malpractices,” she said.

Though the throat-cut competition has come to an end but there are still several cases being reported of the post-poll violence between the opposition parties.