ED summons Narada chief, asks him to appear on May 18

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Narada News CEO Mathew Samuel in connection with the sting operation.

Samuel has been asked to turn up before the central investigating agency in its office at Salt Lake on May 18.

ED had initiated a probe in this connection on April 28 under certain sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of the FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The investigation has been taken up by the ED to ascertain the money trail.

In a letter sent to Samuel on May 5, the ED has directed him to turn up with all relevant documents that include Income Tax Returns of the last three assessment years and his own personal financial documents. He has also been directed to bring documents related to Narada News.

It may be mentioned that the CBI is probing the sting operation and had already interrogated Samuel. In a reply to some questions of CBI, Samuel had earlier maintained that Tehelka had given him Rs 80 lakh to undertake the sting operation, taking a U-turn from his previous stand. Soon after the sting operation was released ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections, Samuel had claimed that some of his friends from Dubai, US and Australia had funded the sting operation as they wanted to launch a website.

With an objective to verify his claims and to get more details about the funding of the sting operation, he has been asked to turn up before the assistant director of ED Nivedita Sendasgupta. It has been mentioned in the letter sent to summon him that the ED official "require Samuel to appear before the official in person or through authorised representative at noon on May 18" at the office of ED at Salt Lake "along with the documents".

According to an ED official, they need to interrogate Samuel and at the same time the documents related to financial transactions through him have to be verified, whether it is of his personal ones or of Narada News.