Narada case: Of 3 leaders summoned by CBI, only one appears for voice sample recording

In connection with the Narada investigation, only Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Prasun Banerjee appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation in Kolkata on Saturday for recording of voice samples.

Former minister Madan Mitra and former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee (who joined BJP two weeks ago) were also supposed to appear before the agency on Saturday. Chatterjee was in Delhi and his lawyer informed the CBI that he would appear on Monday while Mitra did not cite any reason for not responding to the summons.

The agency last Thursday sent summons to nine leaders of the party and an IPS officer who were allegedly seen accepting money in the sting videos.

Summons were sent to ministers Subrata Mukherjee, Subhendu Adhikari and Firhad Hakim, former minister Madan Mitra, MPs Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Banerjee, Aparupa Poddar, former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee (who recently joined BJP), MLA Iqbal Ahmed and an IPS officer S M H Mirza.

The TMC leaders were asked to appear before the agency so that their voices could be recorded and matched with the videos.

“This is harassment by the CBI. I deposed before the agency two years ago and replied to all their queries. I told them I will cooperate with the investigators. They could have collected my voice sample from anywhere, even from the recordings of my speeches in Parliament,” Banerjee, a former soccer player, said while leaving the CBI office where he had to stay for more than two and a half hours.

On August 28, the CBI questioned TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP K D Singh and Mathew Samuel, editor of Narada news, who recorded the videos purportedly showing alleged payments made to TMC MPs and ministers in 2014. The two were questioned at the agency’s Delhi office.

The BJP national executive member Mukul Roy, one of the accused who left TMC in 2017, was also questioned in Delhi on August 28.

The videos surfaced just before the West Bengal Assembly polls in 2016 and the CBI started an investigation. Samuel had posed as a businessman when he met the TMC leaders.