Questioned by CBI, R-Day commentator of 28 yrs axed

Roy, 71, commentated for 28 parades in the 29 calendar years from 1986 to 2014.

The Saradha chit fund scam has taken its toll on Kolkata’s Republic Day parade, regarded as the country’s biggest after Delhi’s. For the first time since 1986, the event on Red Road will be held without the English commentary of Colonel (retd) Saumitra Roy. He has been replaced after he was questioned for his Saradha links, first by the police in May 2013 and then by the CBI in October 2014.

Roy was the CEO of Saradha Realty from December 2011 to November 2012. He has been replaced with Biplab Ganguly, also a veteran commentator in English.

“We prepared the list of commentators and sent it to the chief minister’s office but we got to know the CM has not approved his name. So we took in Biplab Ganguly,” a state government source told The Indian Express.

Roy, 71, commentated for 28 parades in the 29 calendar years from 1986 to 2014 (there was no parade in 2008 because of heavy rain). On August 15, when the chief minister received salutes at a police parade, it was Roy who commentated in English.

Roy says he did not do anything wrong. “There were so many employees at Sharda and I was one of them. The CBI asked me about my job there and I told them everything. And after that the CBI did not call me again. And another thing is, I have become old,” Roy told The Indian Express.

Before joining Saradha, Roy worked in both public and private sector companies in the area of construction. “At Saradha Garden at Bishnupur I built 16 flats for the company and that gave the company business worth crores. But when I understood Sen was not serious in this business, I quit.”

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