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Mukul Roy To Be Quizzed In Saradha Case

The probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the Saradha scam has reached uncom fortably close to West Ben gal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, with the agency securing details from the in come tax department on the purchase of one of her paintings by Sudipta Sen, promoter of the now-bust chit FUNDcompany , for `1.8 crore.

Sources in the agency , which also plans to call Ma mata's confidant and for mer Union minister Mukul Roy for questioning after Di wali, said the details from the I-T department suggest ed that the jailed chief of the Saradha group may have paid a tad too generously for Mamata's work of art.

CBI's interest in the transaction between Sen and Mamata as part of a widening investigation into the ponzi scheme coincides with the thickening perception about Saradha's linkages with Trinamool leaders.During the Lok Sabha poll campaign, Narendra Modi had alleged that one of her paintings went for `1.8 crore. Though Sudipta Sen had then denied having bought any of Mamata's paintings, the I-T returns filed by Trinamool Congress show that his group indeed acquired one, CBI sources said. The amount mentioned in Trinamool's I-T returns as the expenditure on hiring the venue for an exhibition of Mamata's paintings was “way too excessive“.

Mukul Roy , seen as a virtual number two in Trinamool until last week, will be the sixth senior party leader to be questioned by CBI in the scandal. A senior officer told TOI, “Yes, we will question him after Diwali.“ CBI has questioned two Trinamool Rajya Sabha members, one Lok Sabha member and a state minister among others.