Senior IPS officer S.M.H. Mirza, arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Narada sting case on Monday, broke his silence for the first time after the scam surfaced and said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy's statement that there is no video of him accepting money "does not prove anything".
"The investigation will prove whether he has taken money or not," Mr. Mirza told a television channel while being produced before a city court. The court, after hearing counsels representing both CBI and the IPS officer, remanded him to judicial custody till October 15.
Mr. Mirza said that there has been a "confrontation" as both Mr. Mirza and Mr. Roy were made to sit together and questioned by CBI officials. On Sunday, Mr. Mirza was taken to the central Kolkata apartment of Mr. Roy and asked to demonstrate how he handed over the money to Mr. Roy as claimed by him. The process was videographed as well.
"Investigation will prove that. That he is not in the video does not prove anything... He (Mr. Roy) is seen speaking over telephone," Mr. Mirza said when asked by a journalist that Mr. Roy has denied accepting any money from him.
The Narada news videos, shot in 2014 and made public ahead of 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal, showed senior Trinamool Congress leaders accepting bundles of cash from journalist Mathew Samules who posed as a representative of a fictitious company, Impex Infrastructure.
In March 2017, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to take over the Narada case. While Mr. Roy, one of the most influential Trinamool Congress leaders then, is not been seen accepting any cash in the purported videos, he could be heard telling the sting operative, "You talk to Mirza". Mr. Mirza, who was posted as SP of Bardhaman, is seen accepting bundles of cash in the Narada video.
Mr. Roy was questioned by the CBI on September 28 and September 29. The CBI officers arrived at his residence to recreate how he allegedly handed over the money to Mr Roy.
