The Central Bureau of Investigation probing the Saradha scam in the state interrogated the Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP and party national spokesperson Mr Derek O’ Brien in connection with the agency’s probe into the party’s income and expenditure.
O’Brien, who had earlier asked for a deferment of the date for his deposition before the federal agency due to his pre-occupation in Delhi since Parliament was in session, today came to the CBI’s CGO complex office at Salt Lake at around 1.30 p.m and met the agency’s investigating officers to clear the air on the party’s accounts in the aftermath of the Saradha meltdown.
A source close to the agency said that the MP was quizzed mainly on the “income and expenditure” of the party, following the leads which the sleuths had collected during interrogation of other party leaders and the founder of the Saradha Group, Sudipto Sen, and former party MP Kunal Ghosh.
Mr O’Brien is the publisher of the party mouthpiece Jago Bangla.
A CBI source said the summons to him was necessitated since the MP was the signatory to the party mouthpiece.
The editor of Jago Bangla Mr Subrata Bakshi was also quizzed in December last year regarding the party’s accounts between 2010 and 2014.
The Rajya Sabha MP was summoned, according to a source close to the central agency, earlier in January this year in connection with a money laundering case.
The agency also quizzed Manik Majumdar, a key aide of chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee in connection with the probe. The source, however, clarified that the summons to Mr O’Brien was part of “routine investigation”.
