CM, here's Mukul, the model citizen |
| Our Bureau | Saturday , January 31 , 2015 | |
 Mukul Roy outside the CBI office in Salt Lake after he was questioned by the agency on Friday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta ? Mukul, the Trinamul all India general secretary, promised to co-operate with the central agency probing the Saradha scam and asked his supporters not to raise slogans. (Mamata has, several times in the past, accused the CBI of "political vendetta" and urged her supporters to hit the streets in protest. The state law minister had taken part in a protest outside the CBI office.) ? Mukul addressed reporters four times during the day and thanked media for their effort to inform people. (Till now, Mukul has been parsimonious with words. A section of the media has been Mamata's favourite punching bag at almost all meetings in the past few months.) ? Mukul did not refer to Mamata or Trinamul even once during the four occasions he spoke after facing the CBI officers and leaving the agency's office. He did not make any of the statements from Trinamul Bhavan, the party headquarters. (No Trinamul leader dares finish a sentence without paying obeisance to Didi.) Calcutta, Jan. 30: What's cooking? The easy answer is Mukul and Mamata are not on the same page. The mischievous answer is there is always something more than meets the eye in politics. But there was near-unanimity in Bengal politics this evening that Mukul was speaking a new language on a day he was questioned by the CBI for around four hours over three rounds and allowed to leave for the day. A senior Trinamul leader went to the extent of comparing Mukul to Biman Bose, the CPM state secretary. Sources in the CBI said the investigators were "happy" with the way Mukul co-operated with them. The most significant disclosure made by Mukul was confirmation that he and Mamata were present in the meeting with Sen in Deolo. "But he was quick to add that he was not the one who had organised it. He clarified that he was accompanying the party leader and that was why he was present at the meeting," said a CBI source. The sources said Mukul named the others who were present at the meeting, including a senior bureaucrat and the owner of another deposit-collection company. Mukul's statements have been noted down under Section 161 of the CrPC, which can be produced in court as evidence. The sources claimed that Mukul had said he had met Sen at Nizam Palace on April 5, 2013, four days before the Saradha chief slipped out of the city. But Mukul explained that Sen had met him seeking help to run his business, following which the politician advised the Saradha boss to meet the agencies concerned and not him. "The MP denied having any role in dictating the contents of Sen's purported letter to the CBI, which was written a day after the two met," a source said. "This was just the first day. We will call him again shortly and we will ask him more questions," said a CBI source. Between 3.15pm, when Mukul stepped out after the interrogation, and 6.15pm, he spoke at least on four occasions. "As a citizen and an office-bearer of a political party, it is my duty to extend all possible assistance to this investigation. There was never any question of evading or running away from facing the CBI. I had informed the agency officials that I would meet them for the questioning and I did exactly that today. I will do so again if they call me," Mukul said. "Lakhs of poor people lost everything on account of the scam. They must not be denied the justice they deserve," he added. Mukul's message stood out in sharp contrast with what Mamata told a programme where student scholarships were distributed. "You (the Centre) cannot compete with our (Bengal's) development, so you are conspiring against us. You people are trying to malign us. But I have not given you the right to malign me," Mamata said without naming the CBI. Mukul, who had been critical of the CBI in the past, did not air any complaint against the agency today. His repeated stress on "justice" for the poor depositors prompted a senior Trinamul leader to ask: "From the content of what he said, it is difficult to figure out whether Mukul Roy or Biman Bose was speaking." Today, in spite of earlier calls by Mamata to hit the streets to protest the CBI's alleged bias, Mukul's supporters maintained calm outside Salt Lake's CGO complex, where the agency office is located. With party MLAs Sabyasachi Dutta - who is under the Trinamul scanner after speaking out last Saturday - and Shiuli Saha in tow, Roy reached the complex at around 10.40am. The moment some of the 500 supporters gathered there started raising slogans, Mukul asked them to stop. He said the place was not a political platform and he did not want any "unnecessary drama". Those reading the tea leaves are waiting to see if Mukul will attend a party meeting tomorrow. |
↧
Kaalaadhan Saradha scam: Bamboo Mamata, here's Mukul, the model citizen
↧