Saradha scam: CBI summons Mamata Banerjee’s key aide Mukul Roy

Mukul Roy said he will appear before the CBI when he will go to Kolkata.

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Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy

Bruised and battered by the unfolding Saradha scandal, Trinamool Congress on Monday faced a major setback with the CBI summoning the party’s general secretary Mukul Roy for questioning.

With this, the big question stirring Bengal politics and the Trinamool is — will Mukul Roy face the same fate as Madan Mitra — the first Trinamool minister to go to jail in the Saradha case. Roy, who was in Delhi on Monday, said he has been “informed” that CBI wants to speak to him. “I am not getting into whether a summon has been issued or not. I have been informed that CBI wants to talk to me. I am in Delhi today and tomorrow. After that when I go to Kolkata, I will go to them immediately. I have not done anything illegal personally or politically. I do not want to comment about the party’s stand that this is a political conspiracy. I am not the party spokesman,” Roy said.

He added that he has no information whether he has been called as a witness or as an accused. Roy is likely to appear before the CBI on January 14. There is speculation he may be taken into custody the same day as was the case with Mitra.

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Sources said that after word spread about the CBI missive, party chief and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to Roy several times. Roy also told his aides that his interactions with Saradha chairman Sudipta Sen were limited to a meeting held between a senior state functionary and a businessman, who after his channels failed, had approached the government for help.

Roy has also alleged that had his pictures not been in the media, Sen may have not even been able to recognised him from the limited time the two had spent together. He has also claimed he hasn’t “taken a penny” from Saradha. Top CBI sources said Roy has been named by a number of co-accused in the Saradha case and needs to answer questions related to the larger conspiracy of the scam and the involvement of influential people.

Meanwhile, Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee said on Monday that party workers will take to the streets to protest “this blatant, naked politically motivated and vindictive action of the CBI”. “BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh is behaving like CBI’s additional director,” Chatterjee added.

With ENS, Delhi

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