After the Calcutta high court order to ascertain whether Mathew Samuel had bribed the politicians or the politicians had themselves sought for a bribe, alongside the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) too is probing the angle.
ED had also initiated a case after CBI in connection with the Narada sting operation. While the main case is with the CBI, the other central investigating agency ED is probing into the money laundering part of the entire incident.
According to a senior ED officer, though the agency is looking only into the money laundering part of the case, they are also trying to ascertain the same as "it is important to ascertain whether there were repeated instigations to the leaders to take something".
"Somebody's demand should not be instigated by giving something. Someone should not be brought under corrupt practices by repeatedly requesting to take something. It is what the answer of the question whether Samuel had offered money to the leaders on his own or whether they had asked for money from him would establish," the officer said.
ED had interrogated Samuel in his office in Cochin for two consecutive days on May 23 and 24.
Two senior officers of the investigating agency from Kolkata went to Cochin and questioned Samuel. Sources said that he was asked to narrate the entire episode in details during the interrogation.
The ED officers are going through the recorded statement.
"We have to go through the entire statement and then see whether he had given money on his own or they had asked for it.
"The matter is not very clear to us yet and we have to really take a call on it," the officer said.
The ED had initiated a probe into the case on April 28 and had summoned Samuel repeatedly to its Kolkata office.
But the Narada News CEO had failed to turn up at Kolkata owing to his ill health and was finally interrogated in Cochin.
CBI counsel Ashraf Ali had submitted before the High Court on Tuesday that the agency will examine and record statement of Samuel shortly.