Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday summoned senior Trinamul Congress leader and deputy mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) MLA Iqbal Ahmed for questioning in the Narada case.
Sources in the CBI said that Mr Ahmed, the younger brother of TMC MP Sultan Ahmed, has been summoned for questioning on June 10. Mr Ahmed is among the first Trinamul Congress leaders to be summoned by the CBI in connection with the Narada video, where a number of TMC leaders, including ministers, were seen accepting wads of notes.
Reacting to the summons, Mr Ahmed said, “Some officers from the CBI came to my house this morning with the summons. I signed the summons and returned them. They have summoned me and I will surely go,” Mr Ahmed told reporters at his KMC office.
Mr Ahmed, who was admitted at a private hospital for quite a long time for an illness, said he was not well at present. When asked if he thought the Narada video to be a conspiracy of the BJP, he refused to comment.
Mr Ahmed was not at his residence when CBI officers came. His family had to call him up, after which he came and accepted the summons.
It is alleged that Mr Ahmed is the person who had introduced Mathew Samuel to some of the TMC leaders who were featured in the video.
Calcutta high court in March had ordered a preliminary inquiry by the CBI into the Narada sting operation, after examining a report by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh, and had declared the tapes to be authentic.
The sting tapes were released to various media organisations ahead of the 2016 Bengal Assembly polls.
