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Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mukul Roy will, finally, appear before Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday responding to the summon in connection with Saradha scam. Amid speculation whether Roy will end up being arrested by the central agency after the questioning as was the case with West Bengal transport minister Madan Mitra, party supremo Mamata Banerjee has called for the TMC core-committee meeting at her residence on Saturday.
“I am going to CBI office on Friday. As I said earlier, I would cooperate with them,” Roy said.
Mukul Roy’s name has often surfaced in connection with the Saradha scam.
Arrested former TMC MP Kunal Ghosh, too, has alleged several times that Roy had close links with Sudipta Sen and was aware of Saradha’s business. There were also allegations that Sen had met Mukul Roy in April, 2013 before he fled Kolkata after Saradha went bust. Several Saradha employees, too, have reportedly claimed before CBI that such meeting indeed took place. Photographs of Roy at the office of Kolom, one of the many newspaper run by Sudipta Sen, had earlier surfaced.
Two TMC Rajya Sabha MPs — Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose, party vice president Rajat Majumdar of the Trinamool Congress and state sports minister Madan Mitra, are already behind bars for their alleged involvement in the Saradha scam. Incidentally, in case of Madan Mitra, CBI arrested the state transport minister on the day he appeared before the central agency. As there is speculation over Mukul Roy’s fate, Mamata Banerjee has called for a meeting of party’s core-committee at her residence in Kalighat, in Kolkata on Saturday.
Recently, West Bengal government and Trinamool Congress, seperately, moved Supreme Court asking it to monitor the ongoing Saradha probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging that selective leaks by the agency in Saradha investigation are affecting the image of the state government.
While handing over the Saradha case to CBI in April, 2013, Supreme Court had noted there was no need to monitor the investigation at that point of time, but would do so if need arises.
Congress leader and former law minister Kapil Sibal filed the petition on behalf of the West Bengal government arguing the need has arisen. This was done after Mukul Roy, arguably the number-two in the party, was issued summon by the CBI.
Mukul Roy, too, had earlier said, he would face CBI only after the apex court hears the governemt and party’s plea. Thought the matter was expected to come up for hearing this week, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing of the same.
