Cooperating with CBI to help truth come out, says Mukul Roy

Unlike other TMC leaders like Madan Mitra, Roy hasn't alleged harassment by CBI

After being quizzed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for more than four hours in connection with the Saradha scam, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mukul Roy today said he was cooperating with the central agency to help the truth come out.

“I have joined the investigation. An investigation is going on. I want the truth to come out and I am cooperating with the investigating agency,” Roy told reporters, adding, “If they ask me, I’ll again appear before CBI in future.”

Incidentally, unlike other TMC leaders like Madan Mitra, Roy has stayed away from making any allegation of being harassed by CBI. In fact, in the morning Roy directed TMC workers gathered outside the CBI office at CGO complex here to vacate the place. When asked about why he did so, Roy said, “Political and legal fight will go on. But, personally I think, it is not right to do something that will affect normal life.”

It should be noted that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier directed party workers to protest CBI activism in Saradha. In fact, Banerjee herself hit the street a day after her minister Madan Mitra was arrested by the CBI.

Mukul Roy’s words and action today was welcomed by even a section of the opposition leaders. “It is good to see that Mukul is cooperating with the CBI. Mamata Banerjee and Madan Mitra have so far only made wild allegations against the CBI. If Mukul Roy actually helps CBI unearth the truth, despite all his wrongdoings, that would be a commendable act,” Congress leader Abdul Mannan said. Mannan had moved the apex court seeking a CBI probe and it was on his plea Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation.

TMC, however, stayed away from making any official comment on today’s development. TMC’s core-commitee’s meeting is scheduled tomorrow at Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat, in Kolkata on Saturday. Mukul Roy, aguably the number-two leader of the party till recently, normally addresses party leaders during such meetings along with party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Muku Roy’s name has often surfaced in connection with the Saradha scam.

Arrested former TMC MP Kunal Ghosh, too, has alleged several times that Roy had close links with Sudipta Sen and was aware of Saradha’s business. There were also allegations that Sen had met Mukul Roy in April, 2013 before he fled Kolkata after Saradha went bust. Several Saradha emplyees too have reportedly claimed before the CBI that such a meeting indeed took place. Photographs of Roy at the office of Kolom, one of the many newspapers run By Sudipta Sen, had earlier surfaced. Two TMC Rajya Sabha MPs — Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose — and the party vice-president Rajat Majumdar of the Trinamool Congress and state sports minister Madan Mitra are already behind bars for their alleged involvement in the Saradha scam.