Congress' Abhishek Singhvi reacts to Mukul Roy's 'ghar wapsi'; has this question for CBI

Even as BJP national vice president Mukul Roy and his son Subhrangshu are set to join TMC, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi took a dig at CBI in reference to the Narada case. In a sting operation conducted by Narada news founder Mathew Samuel, multiple TMC leaders including Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari, Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, and Firhad Hakim were accused of accepting bribes in exchange for extending unofficial favours. This led to the registration of an FIR under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 7, 13 (2) r/w 13 (1) (a) and (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

While Roy was questioned by the CBI initially, the pressure on him eased after he joined BJP in November 2017. This perception gained more traction after the BJP national vice president and TMC-turned-BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari did not face CBI action as opposed to West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, and ex-legislator Sovan Chatterjee who were arrested on May 17. In a veiled jibe at the CBI's alleged bias towards the ruling party, Singhvi questioned whether the central agency will now change its stand on Roy's culpability in the case. 

TMC leaders granted bail in Narada case

The arrest of the TMC leaders after the Assembly election results propelled a protest from TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee who demanded the unconditional release of these leaders and sat on a 6-hour long dharna with her supporters outside the CBI office. Moreover, Law Minister Moloy Ghatak was continuously present in the court of the Special CBI judge when the accused were produced virtually. Granting bail to the 4 leaders, the Special CBI court took into account the fact that the agency didn't ask for their custody and the SC's latest order on the decongesting of prisons. 

Staying the order, the Calcutta HC initially sent them to judicial custody but later allowed them to be kept under house arrest. After extensive arguments in the court, a 5-judge bench of the HC granted interim bail to Hakim, Mukherjee, Mitra, and Chatterjee subject to certain conditions. For instance, they cannot give interviews to the media pending the final verdict in the bail plea and will have to join the investigation via video conferencing,

Mukul Roy to rejoin TMC

Mukul Roy's induction into TMC comes in the wake of BJP's inability to make sufficient inroads in West Bengal. He was also reportedly miffed as Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari pipped him to the Leader of the Opposition's post. Earlier, Roy's son had stirred controversy after writing on social media that one should do self-introspection before criticising the government which has come to power with people's support.

This was seen as an indication that the Roy father-son duo is not on the same page as the BJP leadership. The change in the political equations was also visible after Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee visited Mukul Roy's wife Krishna at the hospital where she is undergoing treatment for COVID-19. However, Roy's absence at an important organizational meeting of the saffron party and his silence on the post-poll violence set the rumour mills abuzz. Currently, the BJP national vice president is on the way to the Trinamool Bhavan where his entry is likely to be approved.