2016 Narada sting case: CBI summons Mathew Samuel to Kolkata

Kolkata, March 27 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday issued a notice to Mathew Samuel, the man behind the 2016 Narada sting operation, asking him to be present at its office here next month.

The CBI sleuths issued the notice under Section 160 of the Code for Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

In the notice sent by CBI’s deputy Superintendent Risinamol K.C., Samuel has been asked to be present at the agency’s Nizam Palace office by 11 a.m. on April 4.

The CBI has become active again in the case in which several top leaders of Trinamool Congress and one police officer were seen accepting cash.

The agency had summoned Samuel for interrogation to Kolkata in September last year. However, at that point of time Samuel had set three conditions for joining the probe in Kolkata.

The first condition was that his up and down flight travel costs will have to be reimbursed by the central agency. The second condition was that the central agency will also have to arrange and bear the cost of his stay in Kolkata during the period. The final condition was that accommodation in Kolkata should be near the CBI office in Kolkata.

The Narada videos surfaced just before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls. It created a major political stir in the state and at one point of time Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that had she been aware she would have denied tickets to those who appeared in the sting videos.