Citing ‘preoccupations’ as the reason for his non-appearance before the CBI officials, BJP leader Mukul Roy skipped appearance at Nizam Palace today.
The central agency, however, served a fresh notice asking him to appear before it tomorrow.
Earlier, the agency has summoned him for questioning in connection with the Narada tapes scandal.
The former railway minister sought more time to appear before the investigating agency. Earlier Roy’s aides went to Nizam Palace to hand over a note of the BJP leader expressing his inability to make himself available to the agency officials on the ground that he was caught up with party works.
Roy also pleaded for some time. But a source close to the central agency said the officers had in no uncertain terms informed the aides that Roy must appear before the sleuths tomorrow as he needed to be quizzed face to face with Mirza before the latter’s custody comes to an end on 30 September.
Mirza, who was arrested yesterday, was the police chief of Burdwan in 2014 when Mr Samuel had carried out the sting operation. He was suspended from service after the Calcutta High Court ruling.
The commandant of the state armed police was charged with amassing grafts at the behest of influential political leaders of the Trinamul Congress.
The officer was also charged for receiving Rs 5 lakh as pay-off from Samuel who gave him the money masquerading as businessman Santosh Shankaran. In the sting video that went viral before the 2016 Assembly polls, Roy, then a Trinamul Congress leader, was seen asking Samuel to go to Mirza and give him the money.
A CBI source claimed that the Narada CEO during the course of interrogation told the investigators that Mirza had taken Rs 5 lakh from him for funding a political party.
While speaking to The Statesman regarding the arrest of IPS officer Mirza in Narada case, the Narada news CEO said, “It’s a fact that he had taken Rs 5 lakh from me when I approached him on the pretext of promoting my business. He was the man who had introduced me to other influential leaders of the ruling party.”
Mathew, however, ducked a query on the BJP leader Mukul Roy’s role in the payoff scam.
The Narada CEO further said they had met at two places. They had met each other first at a hotel near the city airport and then at another hotel in the heart of the city. Mirza had demanded Rs 5 lakh to promote his business in Burdwan. The CBI sources said during the interrogation of Samuel, it became clear that Mirza had received phone calls regarding money dispatch.
During his interrogation yesterday, Mirza failed to come up with satisfactory answer and tried to dodge many questions.
At this juncture, the CBI wants to extract information from Roy regarding his links to Mirza as it was Roy who had asked Samuel to meet Mirza. Meanwhile, the CBI has issued a notice to Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP KD Singh regarding Samuel’s service details in the Narada portal.
The agency has also asked for his service tenure and salary slip during his association with the company, a source said. The agency has sent a notice to Mathew Samuel asking him to come to Kolkata for a face-to-face interrogation with SMH Mirza.