TMC second-in command is summoned by the CBI

TMC second-in command is summoned by the CBI

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 04:46 AM IST
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Mukul Roy |

Kolkata: In a major blow to the Trinmool Congress, the CBI on Monday summoned its MP and top leader Mukul Roy to appear in its office in connection with the Saradha scam.

Mukul Roy, the former Union Railway Minister, is second in command in the Trinamool Congres after West Bengal Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee.

Another minister in the Trinamool government in Bengal and two party MPs are already in jail for links with the Saradha scam; thousands of people lost their life’s savings in the scandal.

In Kolkata, a Trinamool leader reacted angrily, demanding, “Who is running the CBI? Is it the PMO or Amit Shah’s office?”

“This is blatant vindictiveness. These summons have not yet been served and BJP honchos are already giving bytes,” said MP Derek O’Brien in a statement.

“Trinamool is the main opposition party in Parliament. By doing this the BJP hopes to silence us. This is a deliberate bid to try and finish all regional parties and they are doing this in many states… This devious strategy of theirs will not succeed, because we will not succumb. We will them fight politically,” the statement said.

It is learnt that the CBI authorities had Roy an e-mail asking him to appear before them. The CBI authorities had also telephoned him. But Mukul Roy who is in New Delhi told the central investigating agency that he would visit the CBI office within a day or two.

“I have been asked by the CBI to appear (before it). I am in Delhi for a day or two and as and when I return to Kolkata, on the first occasion, I will meet the CBI people. I was never involved in any way in any immoral and illegal activity as an individual or as custodian of my party,” he said.

The speculation was rife for a long time that the CBI would summon Roy. The buzz was that the TMC national general secretary had close ties with the arrested Sardha group Chairman Sudipto Sen. The CBI has already arrested West Bengal transport minister Madan Mitra for his alleged involvement in the Saradha scam. Mitra is now languishing in jail. Two other Trinamool Congress MPs, Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Basu, were also arrested by the CBI for their alleged involvement in the scam. Arrested party MP Kunal Ghosh has several times alleged that both Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy had benefited from the Saradha scam and he had demanded that the CBI should interrogate both the leaders.

However, in a statement, Derek O’Brien, national spokesperson of the Trinamool Congres and Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha, said, “The nasty ploy of using CBI as a political tool by the BJP continues. They could not fight us politically in Bengal in the Lok Sabha elections, so now they have adopted these dirty tactics months before corporation elections. We will fight them strongly and politically”.

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