Trinamool MP Nusrat Jahan quizzed by ED in real estate fraud case

MP Nusrat Jahan questioned by ED in real estate fraud case; CBI steps up Narada sting videos probe. Trinamool Congress leaders accused of taking cash on camera before 2016 Assembly polls in West Bengal. MP denies allegations, claims she resigned from company in 2017 and repaid loan with interest. CBI arrests Mayor Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee and Sovan Chatterjee in 2021.

Trinamool Congress MP from Basirhat Nusrat Jahan was on Tuesday questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a real estate fraud involving a company with which the MP had been engaged as a director in the past.

Ms. Jahan arrived at the ED office in Kolkata at about 10.45 a.m. and was there for about six hours. “I have answered all their questions,” she later said.

Allegations of financial wrongdoing against the real estate company with which Ms. Jahan was associated came to the fore in August this year. “I resigned from the Seven Sense Infrastructure Company on March 1, 2017 and have [had] no connection with the company since. I own no stakes in the company and my bank statements will prove this. Hence, the allegation that I siphoned off public money to buy a house is incorrect,” Ms. Jahan said.

Also Read | Trinamool MP Nusrat Jahan denies allegations of financial wrongdoing

The Trinamool MP was accused of diverting money from the company account to buy an apartment. “I took a loan of ₹1.16 crore from the company to buy my house, which I repaid with interest (₹1.42 crore) on May 6, 2017,” she clarified. She has faced attacks by the BJP leadership which alleged that senior citizens had deposited money in the company for apartments since Ms. Jahan was director of the company.

Meanwhile, after years of a lull in the investigation of the Narada sting videos, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Mathew Samuels who had shot videos of the Trinamool Congress leaders taking cash on camera before the 2016 Assembly polls in West Bengal. The CBI had sent the phone of Mr. Samuels for forensic investigation. He has been asked to appear before the agency in Kolkata on Monday (September 18).

Not only leaders of Trinamool Congress, but Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari — who was earlier with Trinamool Congress — has been named as an accused in the FIR filed by the CBI in connection with the sting videos. The CBI had arrested a number of Trinamool leaders, including Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, the late Subrata Mukherjee and former Trinamool leader Sovan Chatterjee, in connection with the Narada tapes in 2021, weeks after the result of 2021 Assembly polls was announced.