CBI grills TMC MP, BJP leader in Narada case
Chatterjee has been asked to appear before the CBI on Saturday and Poddar in the first week of September, sources said.
New Delhi: The CBI on Tuesday examined BJP leader Mukul Roy and Trinamul Congress (TMC) MP K.D. Singh in connection with the Narada sting case.
The Narada sting tapes, which were released to different news organisations before the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal, showed people resembling senior TMC leaders receiving money, allegedly for giving future favours.
Roy, who was a close confidant of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee before he broke ranks with the TMC, was called at the agency headquarters where a team of officials from Kolkata had come to examine him, they said.
He had joined the BJP months after being named as an accused in the case by the CBI on April 16, 2017. The team also questioned TMC Rajya Sabha member K.D. Singh in connection with the case, they added.
The Central probe agency suspects that Singh had investments in an investigation magazine which had commissioned the sting operation, sources said. The sting was later broadcast on various channels by Narada news editor Mathew Samuel who had provided the recordings to the CBI purportedly showing alleged payments received by politicians and senior bureaucrats of West Bengal government. The agency confronted Mr Samuel and Singh on alleged payments to politicians who were caught on camera, they said.
The CBI has also summoned former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who recently joined the BJP, in connection with the case. The investigating agency has also summoned TMC MP Aparupa Poddar for questioning.
Chatterjee has been asked to appear before the CBI on Saturday and Poddar in the first week of September, sources said.
The CBI had booked 12 top TMC leaders, including MPs and West Bengal ministers, and an IPS officer in connection with the case. The list of FIR includes all persons (leaders) who were purportedly seen receiving money in the Narada sting operation footage. Trinamool Congress MP Aparupa Poddar's name has also been included in the list of FIR.
In its FIR, the agency has said suspect public servants have been identified who were shown to have either accepted money in cash given by Samuel posing as a representative of a Chennai-based company or asked him to handover the money to someone else on their behalf. An FIR was lodged for alleged criminal conspiracy under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with bribery and criminal misconduct.