Mukul Roy breaks silence on Saradha, keeps mum on being marginalised

“Let me make it very clear. Neither I nor my party took any money from Saradha. People are spreading all sorts of canards. In fact, the people who are making such allegations against me and my party have taken money from chit funds. Let the CBI find out,” he told The Indian Express.

Asked if he was innocent, then why was Mamata time and again giving him clean chit in the scam, the MP said, “That only the chief minister knows”.

“Madan (Mitra) and Mukul have done no wrong. As they are deeply involved in the party organisation, a dirty political conspiracy is being hatched to put them behind the bars in order to weaken the party,” a leader had quoted Mamata as saying in Saturday’s closed door party meeting.

Roy was in Kolkata on January 1 for party’s foundation day celebrations but returned to Delhi immediately after that and did not attend the meeting at Mamata’s residence.

“My absence (from party meeting) was absolutely personal. Let people make guesses and speculations. I don’t want to comment on this,” he said.

A party leader had Saturday said that Roy was in Delhi to rope in former Union minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal to defend TMC leaders accused in Saradha case in court.

Roy, meanwhile, brushed aside the speculation that he may quit TMC to either form a new party or join Congress or BJP. “I am one of the founder members of TMC. I don’t why these talks and speculation are coming up. I do not want to say anything in this regard,” he said.

Considered second-in-command in TMC, Roy’s influence is on wane as following media reports that he may be the next party leader who may face CBI action, Mamata has set in motion an unofficial succession plan in which her nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee may play a major role.