Coal scam: CBI seeks court approval to frame charges
The process of framing charges in the coal pilferage scam in the jurisdiction of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) has started today at the CBI Special Court in Asansol.
The anti-corruption wing of the CBI today quizzed the Trinamul Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and recorded her voice sample in connection with the Narada payoff scam.
With her the number of accused whose voice samples had so far been recorded stood at eight, with the state transport minister Subhendu Adhikari continued to skip the summons though he had been asked to join the probe today.
A source close to the CBI said that Mr Adhikari had in a letter sent through a person to the agency office at Nizam Palace sought further time to appear for recording his voice sample.
Advertisement
The source claimed the agency had turned down his request for further time and asked him to join the probe today.
While the former MP and state transport minister continued to dodge the summon, the agency is concerned about not being able to record the voice sample of the former Burdwan police chief SMH Mirza despite having gone to his residence for the purpose due to his serious indisposition.
Mrs Dastidar, who is among three MPs that the agency was learnt to have sought the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s nod to prosecute in Narada case, came to the agency’s Nizam Palace office this morning. She was put through the process of recording her voice sample by having her read a three-page text. This would now be tallied with the sting video that Mathew Samuel had recorded of her. Then it would be sent to the laboratory for forensic tests.
The CBI is on an overdrive to conclude the probe as soon as possible to file chagesheet in the Narada case. Later, coming out of the CBI office at Nizam Palace after the exercise, the Trinamul MP said, “The agency is trying to unearth the larger conspiracy in the Narada scam.”
I too being a law-abiding citizen tried to do my best to cooperate with the agency by answering their queries to the best of my ability.”
I shall be ready to cooperate with them as and when they require me because we want to know the persons who had hatched this kind of conspiracy to defame us”.
Advertisement
