Mukul Roy fails to appear before CBI

NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Mukul Roy on Friday failed to appear before CBI officials in Kolkata in connection with the Narada tapes corruption case, officials here said.

However, sources in the know said that Roy cited personal preoccupations and asked to appear another day for questioning in the case, to which he has been asked to appear before agency officials on Saturday afternoon.

Roy’s summons in the Narada case came on the day the agency made its first arrest, taking senior IPS officer SMH Meerza into custody. According to sources in the know, Meerza was not cooperating with the agency and not deliberately not divulging details he is aware of.

They added that Meerza was unable to explain expecting a wad of cash from sting operator Mathew Samuel.

The case came to light after covertly recorded videos of several senior ruling party leader in West Bengal was released before the 2016 Assembly polls in the state.

The videos purportedly showed the leaders accepting cash from Samuel, the Editor of Narada News, where the footage was first released, in exchange for extending favours to his fictitious company.

According to the CBI’S preliminary enquiry, the videos show Roy asking Samuel to hand over cash meant for himself to Meerza and even shows him to say that he would not be accepting it himself.

Shortly, another clip shows Meerza accepting a wad of Rs 5 lakh in cash.

The CBI’S probe into Roy had interestingly died down after he joined the BJP within four months of the FIR being registered. In fact, the agency also sought prosecution sanction for four other accused in the case but not Roy.