Kolkata Police summons Narada CEO Mathew Samuel over sting tapes

Kolkata: The Economic Offence Wing of the Kolkata Police on Thursday summoned Narada News CEO Mathew Samuel in connection with its probe into the sting operation conducted by the channel in which some TMC leaders were purportedly shown accepting money for consideration.

According to a top Kolkata Police officer, an e-mail was on Thursday sent to Samuel this evening at around 3.54 pm by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Economic Offence Wing, Detective Department.

The letter said that after failing "to contact Samuel over the last couple of days", the EOW of Kolkata Police mailed him getting the "e-mail id" from the Narada news' website.

Asking Samuel to "treat the letter as most urgent", the letter directed him to make himself available before the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Police, EOW, DD at Kolkata Police's headquarter at Lalbazar here "immediately" for the purpose of investigation into the case.

Acknowledging that he has got an email from Kolkata Police, Samuel told PTI that he was consulting his lawyers before deciding his next step.

"Currently I am busy with some official work. I am consulting my lawyers in connection with the matter," Samuel said over the phone.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on June 17 ordered a probe by Kolkata police into the controversial Narada sting operation and asserted that her party had not taken "a single penny" from anyone in the sting as well as the Saradha chit fund scam. The Narada sting operation, which surfaced when the state was at the threshold of the Assembly elections, purportedly showed several Trinamool Congress leaders and an IPS officer accepting money for consideration.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, comprising senior officers of the detective department, cyber crime cell and economic offence wing, has already started a "thorough examination" of the video footage of the sting operation.