CBI quizzes TMC MP Sultan Ahmed in Narada sting case

Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Sultan Ahmed on Monday appeared at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) city office on the agency's summons in the Narada sting footage case.

"Sultan Ahmed has come to our Nizam Palace office in Kolkata. He is being interrogated about his role and involvement in the Narada sting case," a CBI official told IANS.

The Trinamool Congress leader from West Bengal was purportedly seen receiving hoards of cash in the sting footage.

Ahmed, whom the CBI named in the FIR alongside a dozen senior leaders of Trinamool Congress, was summoned by the sleuths twice for interrogation. But he skipped the previous summon, pleading health issues.

The investigation agency lodged an FIR on April 17 against 13 persons, including several state ministers and members of Parliament from the ruling Trinamool Congress, a month after the Calcutta High Court ordered a preliminary inquiry into the Narada sting footage case.

The CBI sleuths had questioned Ahamed's brother and Trinamool Congress legislator Iqbal Ahmed, Indian Police Service officer S.M.H. Mirza and a middleman named Syed Tazdar Ali Mirza alias Tiger in connection with the case last month.

The controversy erupted in election-bound West Bengal in March last year when Narada News portal uploaded a video clip purportedly showing the Trinamool leaders receiving money for extending favours to a fictitious company.

Three PILs were filed seeking a CBI probe, and the opposition went all guns blazing on the issue. But the Trinamool managed to retain power, and soon after Banerjee ordered a police probe to find out the "conspiracy" behind the sting.

However, the Calcutta High Court ordered an interim suspension of the police probe.

--IANS

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