Child trafficking: Juhi Chowdhury is innocent, says Roopa Ganguly

With the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) questioning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Roopa Ganguly in connection with a child trafficking case in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri, the latter on Saturday said she is trying to help the agency to solve the case, adding that the party's women wing general secretary Juhi Chowdhury, an accused in the case who was arrested, is innocent.

"They have nothing against me. They just wanted to ask me some questions and information they required so that it can help them solve the case and situation. We want this case to be closed as soon as possible. Juhi belonged to our group and is also a member of the BJP Mahila Morcha. I am sure that she is not an accused, she is innocent," Ganguly told media here.

She added that she had not bought any plane to take people from Kolkata to Delhi.

"My question is why nobody is asking about the prime accused in this case," she asserted.

Earlier in the day, the West Bengal CID went to the residence of BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly here for questioning her in connection with a child trafficking case in Jalpaiguri, a senior official said.

A team of the agency's officers went to Ganguly's south Kolkata house to question her over her alleged meeting with Juhi Chowdhury, an accused in the case who was under arrest, a senior CID official said.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had unearthed a child trafficking racket earlier this year under which babies and children were allegedly sold, some to foreigners, through illegal adoption deals.

The probe agency had arrested several people, including the head of a child protection agency in Darjeeling and a member of a child welfare committee, on charges of child trafficking.

Those arrests were part of a widening probe into the adoption racket at the Bimala Shishu Griho, a children's home in Jalpaiguri town.