Narada’s Samuel got crores of rupees before 2014 LS polls: Cops

The city police had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by the Commissioner of police Rajeev Kumar, to probe into the sting following directions from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Sources in the Kolkata Police’s detective department said that the above mentioned money was transferred from Uttar Pradesh to the bank account of Samuel in Delhi.

It is learnt that the police have come to know the name and other details of the person from whose account the money was transferred. The person is reported to be a politician and a prominent businessman as well. Claiming him to be “very influential”, police refrained from revealing the person’s identity “for the sake of the investigation”.

Investigation officers further came to know that Samuel had withdrawn the same amount of money from his account, sources said. It is this fact that made police further investigate whether the same money was used for the sting operation.

Samuel had claimed that the sting operation was undertaken ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, in which 11 Trinamool Congress leaders were featured. Curiously, the clippings were released after the 2016 Assembly election in West Bengal was declared. The party had been claiming from day one that the sting operation was nothing but a conspiracy to tarnish the image of Trinamool Congress. Senior leaders of the party had been raising questions about who funded the sting operation.

It may be recalled that the Bankshall Court had directed Samuel to turn up at the city police’s headquarters at Lalbazar. The police had moved to the court after the Narada News CEO did not turn up even after being summoned twice. The court had given him a week’s time to appear at Lalbazar.

It is learnt that he was asked to come there along with some documents and he would be asked to clarify how he utilised the huge amount that was transferred to his account.