Bengal BJP leader Mukul Roy appeared before the CBI today for questioning in connection with the 2016 Narada sting operation case, a day after he skipped the agency's first summons citing "preoccupations" with party affairs; BJP President JP Nadda is currently in Kolkata for a series of public events. The original summons had been issued on Thursday after the probe agency arrested senior police officer SMH Mirza. Fresh summons had been issued on Friday
Mukul Roy, 65, reached the CBI office in Kolkata's Nizam Palace at around 2.15 pm. Sources said the agency wanted to question Mr Roy and Mr Mirza simultaneously since they can be heard referring to each other in some of the sting tapes.
"I will go to the CBI whenever summoned. If the agency wants to question me jointly with someone else, that is fine. I am not like Mamata Banerjee who said from the start... don't cooperate with CBI," Mr Roy said, in a dig at the Bengal Chief Minister over a separate probe into the Sarada chit fund scam in which former Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar is alleged to have destroyed evidence.
Conducted by Mathew Samuel, a journalist from Narada News who posed as the representative of a fictitious company, the sting operation refers to tapes showing a number of senior Trinamool Congress leaders - Mukul Roy was a Trinamool MP before joining the BJP - taking bribes or asking for money.
However, Mr Roy has pointed out the footage does not actually show him taking money.
"Neither did I take any money, nor was I offered... I asked the person who came to me posing as a businessman to meet Mirza in connection with land for his business," he said.
The footage was uploaded by the news channel ahead of Assembly polls in 2016 that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress won with ease.
A FIR was lodged in the case in April 2017 against 13 people, including Mr Mirza and TMC ministers and MPs. According to the FIR, Mr Mirza, listed as accused number 12, "was shown to have accepted an amount of Rs 5 lakh approximately".
A former Railway Minister Mr Roy appeared after performing rituals on the occasion of Mahalaya, an auspicious day for Bengalis that falls seven days before the start of Durga Puja festivities.
The BJP carried out similar ceremonies across Bengal for party workers and activists killed in political clashes with ruling Trinamool Congress workers that rocked the state during campaigning for and after Lok Sabha elections in April-May.
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