A day after interrogating senior BJP leader Mukul Roy in the Narada sting operation case, a team of CBI officials today took arrested IPS officer SMH Mirza to Roy’s Elgin Road residence where cash is alleged to have changed hands in 2014 in return for favours during the sting carried out by Mathew Samuel of the Narada News portal.
The CBI recreated the sequence of events with the help of the duo. The face-toface interrogation of the two men was also videographed by the officers. Mirza is said to have revealed to the CBI investigators that he was present along with Narada News CEO Mathew Samuel when a huge amount of money changed hands at the erstwhile Trinamul Congress leader’s residence, a source close to the investigating agency said.
A CBI officer privy to the investigations also confirmed this, but he did not specify the amount that changed hands. Another source claimed that a similar exercise would be carried out during the second round of interrogation, which would involve Mathew Samuel and Mirza. The agency has sent a notice to the Narada chief to come to the city. Today’s exercise assumes significance as Mirza is said to have revealed to CBI officers yesterday that he had given money to Roy at his residence.
The video footage taken today would now be tallied with visuals of the sting operation that Samuel had carried out masquerading as a businessman in 2014. In the tapes that surfaced ahead of the 2016 West Bengal assembly polls, persons resembling senior Trinamul Congress leaders and Mirza are seen accepting money from the representatives of a fictitious company in return for favours. Mirza was seen accepting Rs 5 lakh in cash from a businessman in one of the footages.
The former Burdwan SP purportedly claimed in the video that he was receiving the cash on Roy’s instructions. Roy while interacting with the media, claimed that he is innocent as the footage never showed him taking money from anyone. “A conspiracy is being hatched by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee to frame me in the Narada case,” Mr Roy said. He further said that this is being done to malign him and the BJP.