KOLKATA: The ruling TMC in West Bengal on Monday received yet another jolt after the CBI probing the multi-crore Saradha scam summoned the party’s national secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy over his alleged involvement in the “larger conspiracy”.
A CBI official called up Roy on Monday morning and asked him to reach its office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake here. Roy, who is in New Delhi, replied that he would inform them of his availability within a couple of days.
The TMC described the summons to Roy as “blatant vindictiveness” and party national spokesman Derek O’Brien said, “The so-called summons have not yet been received and the BJP honchos are already giving sound bytes. Is the CBI being run by Modi’s Office? Or by Amit Shah?” State Education Minister and TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee also chipped in, “The CBI has become a frontal office for the BJP. People will hit the streets against the political vindictiveness by the BJP. Party workers, supporters and common people will protest against the BJP’s misuse of CBI in every block of the state.”
Meanwhile, the Opposition parties in West Bengal demanded that the CBI should interrogate Mamata Banerjee.
BJP’s point man for West Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh said, “It was natural for the CBI to summon Roy since he was very much involved in the scam in which lakhs of people were duped. The last man Sen met before fleeing to Kashmir was Roy. The CBI should now investigate others too and I have no reason to believe why they should not also call Mamata.”
Fellow Congress leader Abdul Mannan, who was behind the move to secure the SC order for the probe said, “The judge, while hearing the petition had admitted the involvement of TMC leaders in the larger conspiracy. The CM had named five persons, including herself, and three of them are already behind bars.”