The Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday took arrested Indian Police Service officer SMH Mirza to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mukul Roy’s home in South Kolkata in connection with its investigation into the Narada sting case, Anandabazar Patrika reported. After his arrest last week, Mirza was sent to the CBI’s custody till September 30.
The investigators shot videos of the two to recreate scenes from the videos published by Narada News, in which several Trinamool Congress leaders were allegedly seen accepting cash in return for favours. The videos, shot by the website’s Chief Executive Mathew Samuel, were released ahead of the state Assembly elections in 2016.
The CBI team spent more than an hour at Roy’s third floor apartment on Elgin Road recording the videos. “They [CBI] came here because Mirza told them that he brought Mathew Samuel several times to my house,” Hindustan Times quoted Roy as saying. “It is a lie. This is a conspiracy to malign me and the BJP. There is no video that shows me accepting money.”
Roy, who was questioned for two hours on Saturday evening, reiterated his allegation that Trinamool Congress president and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was conspiring against him. “The chief minister herself is behind this,” he claimed. “She has instructed all the accused people in the Narada case to take my name and malign me.”
The MPs and ministers suspected to be in the Narada videos are Saugata Roy, Suvendu Adhikari, Prasun Banerjee, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Aparupa Poddar. Mukul Roy, who was also allegedly in the video, has since joined the saffron party and Sultan Ahmed has died.
According to the investigating agency’s officials, Roy and Mirza were questioned in presence of each other. However, Roy refused to comment. “It is an internal matter of the CBI,” he said. “Please ask them.”
Roy claimed he neither took any money nor was he offered any. “I asked the person who came to me posing as a businessman to meet Mirza in connection with land for his business,” NDTV quoted him as saying.
On August 29, the CBI had sought Lok Sabha Speaker Om Prakash Birla’s sanction to prosecute Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh and Prasun Banerjee along with Suvendu Adhikari, who is now the state transport minister. If the sanction is granted, the investigating agency may name the four politicians in its chargesheet.
Mamata Banerjee has alleged that the sting operation was a conspiracy hatched against her government and party members before the elections. In June 2017, she ordered a police inquiry into the case.
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