Want truth to emerge in Saradha, says Mukul after CBI probe
COOPERATIVE Sources say Roy did not stonewall the agency; Opposition guns for CM
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy said he wanted the truth to emerge in the multi-crore Saradha scam after being questioned by the CBI on Friday, amid fears that he may expose links between senior party leaders and the controversial firm.
Sources said Roy cooperated with the Central Bureau of Investigation during the fourhour-long interrogation and didn’t stonewall the agency, unlike jailed party colleague and state transport minister Madan Mitra.
“I cooperated with the agency. If the CBI summons me again, I will definitely come. The investigating agency is doing its job. I want the truth to emerge,” said the Rajya Sabha MP, not criticising the probe like Bengal chief minister and party boss Mamata Banerjee.
The interrogation was significant as Roy has admitted to meeting jailed Saradha boss Sudipta Sen at a resort. Mamata was also present at the meeting, suspended party MP Kunal Ghosh has alleged. Roy also met Sen just before the former Saradha chief escaped from Kolkata in 2013.
Several senior TMC leaders are behind bars in the `2,500crore scam that wiped out lifetime savings of about 1.7 million small investors in Bengal, Assam and Odisha. The CBI and the EDhave already interrogated about a dozen party MPs and ministers.
The West Bengal government approached the Supreme Court last week, alleging the Centre was misusing the CBI to destabilise the state administration.
An aide of Mamata and the unofficial Number 2 in the party, Roy is the senior-most party leader to be summoned in the case till now.
Roy’s statement was welcomed by political observers. “If Mukul Roy cooperates and it results in the real culprits being nabbed, he deserves to be thanked,” said Abdul Mannan, a Congress leader whose public interest litigation resulted in the apex court handing over the probe to CBI in May 2014.
West Bengal’s ruling party has its back to the wall as the BJP, Congress and Left are gunning for Mamata, ahead of the 2016 polls. It is believed the investigation is also focussed on the CM’s alleged involvement in the scam.