CID grills Roopa in child trafficking case

A team of senior officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday interrogated BJP Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly at her residence in connection with her alleged links with the Jalpaiguri child trafficking racket. She was grilled for nearly two hours, with the CID officials wanting to know how Ganguly was related to Juhi Choudhury, who had already been arrested her alleged involvement in child trafficking. A three-member team, including two women, visited the BJP MP's residence at Golf Green at around 11.15 am.

The investigating officers are not, however, convinced with the statements given by Ganguly. According to a CID source, she was not providing the right information to them. What Ganguly has stated is different from the statements earlier made by Choudhury. The CID had already gathered specific evidences by examining Choudhury's mobile phone and documents but Ganguly's statement was different from the circumstantial evidence. The investigating officers also came to know in the course of their probe that Choudhury allegedly used to get help from Ganguly in carrying out the racket.

It has been learnt that CID officials will further interrogate Ganguly as they were not happy with her statements. According to sources, there was inconsistency in her contentions. The name of Ganguly and BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya cropped up in the case when the prime accused, Chandana Chakraborty, alleged that former BJP Mahila Morcha leader Juhi Choudhury had influenced the two top BJP leaders to lobby the Central Adoption Research Authority (CARA) authorities to release more central funds for Chakraborty's shelter homes.

Ganguly, Vijayvargiya and two other BJP leaders were sent notices by CID on July 20 for interrogation. Ganguly was also removed from the post of West Bengal BJP Mahila Morcha President a few days ago following the incident.

The BJP MP, however, cried foul and dubbed it political vendetta. At a Press conference at her house later in the day, she defended Juli and claimed she w as innocent. "Juhi is a little girl and she cannot be involved in the child trafficking racket. However, the law will take its own course. I repeatedly said that this is political vendetta and I am always ready to face any interrogation," Ganguly said.