CBI questions BJP leader Mukul Roy, TMC's K D Singh in Narada sting case

BJP leader Mukul Roy and Trinamool Congress MP K D Singh were examined by the CBI in connection with Narada sting case in which some TMC politicians and bureaucrats were allegedly caught on tape accepting money from a journalist posing as a representative of a private company, officials said Wednesday.

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

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

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

The CBI 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.