Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy, who was absent from the crucial core committee meeting Saturday at Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kolkata, Sunday brushed aside reports of him being marginalised by his party as “guesses and speculation”. After his name reportedly figured as one of the beneficiaries of the Saradha Group, the Rajya Sabha MP said neither him nor his party has taken a single paisa from the chit fund group. “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, why was Mamata time and again giving him clean chit in the scam, the MP said, “That only the CM 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 at Saturday’s meeting of the party core committee. Roy was in Kolkata on January 1 for the 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 the party meeting) was absolutely personal. Let people make guesses and speculation. I don’t want to comment on this,” he said. A party leader had on Saturday said that Roy was in Delhi to rope in former Union minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal to defend TMC leaders accused in the Saradha case in court. Roy also brushed aside the speculation that he may quit Trinamool to either form a new party or join Congress or BJP.
