Baby trafficking case: CID not touching the guilty, alleges Roopa Ganguly after two-hour grilling

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly (middle) and national secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya (right) have been summoned by CID in connection with the north Bengal baby trafficking case. (HT Photo)

HT, 29 July 2017, Kolkata: The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday questioned BJP Rajya Sabha member Roopa Ganguly for two hours in connection with the child trafficking case that came to light in north Bengal in February.

A Three-member CID team went to Ganguly’s south Kolkata residence and asked questions about her association with Juhi Chowdhury, a former Mahila Morcha secretary of the Bengal BJP and a prime accused in the case. Chowdhury was allegedly connected with an NGO that sold babies and it is alleged that she met senior government officials in Delhi. Ganguly was state president of Mahila Morcha at that time. The CID team asked the BJP Rajya Sabha member whether she helped Chowdhury meet BJP leaders and ministers in Delhi.

“People planning this probe are not applying their brains. They are not questioning state government officials who helped NGOs that ran the racket for years. Instead, they are wasting my time by asking irrelevant questions. Till she is proved guilty in court Juhi is innocent. I meet a lot of people and meeting people is not a crime,” said Ganguly after the CID team left.

Ganguly claimed she was questioned as a witness in the case and not as an accused. “It is not easy to frame me. When someone comes to me for help I ask for a request in writing. I keep records,” she said.

(Juhi Chowdhury, a Mahila Morcha secretary till March this year, was removed from all position by the Bengal BJP after CID arrested her. (HT File Photo)

On July 20, the CID summoned BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Ganguly to appear for questioning. The notice from CID came close on the heels of the central investigating agencies, CBI and ED, summoning several Trinamool Congress MPs, ministers and MLAs in connection with the Narada scam investigation.

In February this year, CID unearthed a racket that sold babies in the name of adoption. Juhi Chowdhury was arrested and BJP promptly removed her from all party positions. CID officers claimed that the names of Ganguly and Vijayvargiya surfaced during interrogation of the key accused Chandana Chakraborty who ran a childcare home in Jalpaiguri.

Chakraborty, who too was arrested in February, told CID officers that Chowdhury had got in touch with Ganguly, then Mahila Morcha chief in Bengal, and Vijayvargiya, who supervises the BJP’s organisation in the state, to get the childcare home out of trouble.