Scan on Narada accused accounts

Kinsuk Basu Calcutta, May 2: The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have started digging deeper into the bank details of 12 Trinamul leaders and an IPS officer embroiled in the Narada sting case to know if they amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The Narada sting operation was conducted in the April-May period of 2014 and the months preceding and succeeding it are under the scanner.

"By focussing on the income of an individual over the years and his/her disclosed and undisclosed assets, the ED can build watertight cases against the accused. That means, the probe is expanding beyond the Narada pay-off," said a senior police officer who is not connected with the case.

The Narada tapes show images resembling the 12 Trinamul leaders and the IPS officer either accepting cash from a journalist posing as the agent of a fictitious company or directing him to people or places where the money had to be deposited. #The alleged events had been recorded in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 but the visuals were surfaced just before the Assembly polls last year.

Among the 12 Trinamul leaders are Mukul Roy, the party's national vice-president, and ministers Sovan Chatterjee, who is also the Calcutta mayor, Firhad Hakim and Subhendu Adhikari. The CBI, insiders said, has already written to the accused, seeking the names of banks in which they have or had accounts, addresses of the branches and the type of the accounts.

The accused were also asked if they had joint accounts.

It is not known whether the details have already reached the CBI or not but insiders said anyone refusing to divulge the information could be booked for not co-operating with an investigating agency.

"Once the agency gets the details from the accused, the investigators would first tally the records with the banks themselves," said a source.

The investigators will first study the average amount that would be transferred or deposited by each accused through the accounts every month. The ED sleuths would also track the source of income of the accused to match the income and deposit patterns. The focus would also be on withdrawals over a period.

"Sudden increases in transactions will be tracked closely and the accused will be asked to explain. We will also tally the income tax returns of the accused. This entire exercise would take some time," said an ED officer.

The FIR by the CBI on April 16 states the public servants "had either accepted or agreed to accept illegal gratification from Mathew Samuel "for showing favour to him/his firm (Impex Consultancy). Sources said armed with details of transactions, the CBI would start examining the accused, one after another, with the focus primarily on whether the office of the elected representative was misused to accept illegal gratification.