Thursday turned out to be the second successive day of embarrassment for the ruling Trinamool Congress with the Enforcement Directorate subjecting senior Bengal Minister and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s one of the most trusted lieutenants Sovan Chatterjee to intense questioning in the Narada pay-off case.
Subjected to more than four hours of intense grilling Chatterjee, also the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation refused to comment on the contents of “papers” set for him by his interrogators. His interrogation comes a day after another heavyweight Minister and party strongman Firhad Hakim being grilled in the same case.
Chatterjee like many of his senior party colleagues including Ministers and MPs was purportedly seen in a video tape accepting wads of currency notes from a sting journalist who faked as a prospective investor in the State.
ED sources said the Minister had answered some questions but in some others he gave “misleading” replies regarding why he accepted the cash and for what purpose the money was spent. “His statements would be counter-checked and if need be he would again be summoned for further questioning,” an official said.
According to sources the ED officials had found a number of discrepancies in the accounts of some of the Trinamool leaders whoseaccounts they had scrutinized in recent times. These leaders would be asked to explain the discrepancies, sources said.
On Hakim the ED sources said the leader had told them that the money he had taken was for social purposes though he could not provide them satisfactory answers regarding where the cash was spent. The Minister was reportedly heard telling the sting journalist that Rs 5 lakh was too small an amount fit for being consumed by the “bacchhas” or youngsters only.