FIR against senior West Bengal BJP leader Mukul Roy for taking Rs 70 lakhs as bribe
Kolkata: Senior BJP leader Mukul Roy has landed in fresh trouble after he was booked in an FIR on cheating charges for allegedly taking around Rs 70 lakhs as bribe from a man assuring him to get a berth in a railway panel. To thwart arrest he moved the Calcutta High Court for anticipatory bail on Wednesday following the arrest of one of his aides Baban Ghosh, a BJP labour wing leader, from Patuli in the city.
Baban, the BJP labour cell general secretary, was caught late on Tuesday night in the case which was initiated at the Sarsuna police station under section 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) among other charges of the Indian Penal Code. Roy's name is mentioned among the list of three accused.
Santu Ganguly, the victim, lodged the complaint of cheating of Rs 70 lakhs with the police against the trio in January this year, said deputy commissioner of police (south west) Nilanjan Biswas. Ganguly alleged that Baban using the name of Roy took the money from him in several rounds assuring him to make him a member of Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee under the railway ministry.
"I had visited the Parliament and the railway ministry many times. BJP leader Suresh Prabhu was the railway minister then. When nothing happened, I visited the railway office at Koilaghat. Only then I realised that I was cheated. I then lodged the complaint with the police."
Biswas added that Baban was remanded in police custody till August 28 by the court following his production during the day. On the court premises Baban however alleged, "It is a legal matter. The law will take its own course. It is a very old case and a concocted one. Our party leadership will comment on it." Sources claimed that he played a crucial role behind the recent induction of a group of Tollywood actors to the BJP.
Strongly reacting on Baban's arrest and Roy's name in the case state BJP president Dilip Ghosh complained, "Around 500 workers of our party have been in jail. We are fighting 28,000 cases in courts. An attempt is underway to stop the BJP in the state."
He claimed, "The Trinamool Congress has no other way to tackle us. That is why such cases are slapped on our workers. We will fight this case also. The Trinamool is collecting cut-money from the public. But our workers are implicated in false cases. They are put behind bars in any case somehow."
