BJP leader Mukul Roy, TMC's K D Singh examined by CBI: officials

BJP leader Mukul Roy and Trinamool Congress MP K D Singh were examined by the CBI on Wednesday, officials said.

Roy, who was a close confidant of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before he broke ranks with the Trinamool Congress (TMC), came to the agency headquarters here where a team of officials from Kolkata examined him, they said.

The former TMC leader is an accused in the CBI FIR pertaining to Narada sting operation case, while he had been questioned in the past in Saradha chit fund case.

Sources in the CBI said Roy was "examined" in Narada case, but the leader differed.

Speaking to PTI, Roy said he was given notice under 160 CrPC to appear as a witness in the Saradha case.

"They had some queries on Saradha case. I have responded to all their queries. I have told them that they can call me as and when they require," he said over phone.

Roy said no questions pertaining to Narada were put to him.

Earlier, speaking to reporters, Roy had claimed that he had gone to the CBI headquarters on his own.

People go to the CBI even to file complaints, he had said in the evening.

The CBI did not give any official reaction to queries about Roy.

Roy had joined the BJP months after being named as an accused in the case by the CBI on April 16, 2017.

The CBI team also questioned Trinamool Congress' Rajya Sabha member K D Singh in connection with the Narada case, officials said.

Messages sent on the official numbers of K D Singh, given on Rajya Sabha web site, seeking his reaction remained unanswered.

The agency suspects that Singh had investments in an investigation magazine which had commissioned the sting operation, they said.

The sting was later broadcast on various channels by Narada news editor Mathew Samuel who had provided the recordings to the CBI purportedly showing alleged payments received by politicians and senior bureaucrats of West Bengal Government.

The agency confronted Samuel and Singh on alleged payments to the politicians who were caught on camera, they said.

The CBI had booked 12 top TMC leaders, including MPs and West Bengal ministers, and an IPS officer in connection with the case.

In its FIR, the agency has said suspect public servants have been identified who were shown to have either accepted money in cash given by Samuel posing as a representative of a Chennai-based company or asked him to handover the money to someone else on their behalf.

An FIR was lodged for alleged criminal conspiracy under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with bribery and criminal misconduct.

The maximum sentence for these crimes ranges from five to seven years of imprisonment.