The West Bengal government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that around ₹15 crore had been deposited into the bank account of Sumit Roy, an aide to Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, with nearly ₹71 lakh credited in June alone.
The figures were placed before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, which is hearing Roy’s plea against the rejection of his anticipatory bail in a land-related corruption case in Shalboni. Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana are also part of the bench.
Appearing for the state, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said investigators had found substantial financial transactions involving Roy and questioned the source of the money. The state argued that his custodial interrogation was necessary to establish the origin and nature of the transactions.
According to the state, “nearly ₹71 lakh was deposited into Sumit’s account in June”, while the total deposits were around ₹15 crore.
State seeks custodial interrogation
Roy is one of the accused in the alleged land corruption case registered at Shalboni police station. His anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Calcutta High Court, following which he approached the Supreme Court.
The state has previously alleged that Roy was not cooperating with the investigation. During an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had asked whether he had been questioned about allegations concerning large cash deposits into his accounts.
The Solicitor General had told the court that Roy was questioned extensively on the issue but had allegedly failed to provide clear answers to several questions.
The allegation was denied by Roy’s lawyers.
On Wednesday, the state submitted a written transcript of the video-recorded interrogation before the Supreme Court. Roy’s legal team also submitted a written response concerning the interrogation.
Mehta argued that although Roy’s lawyers had denied the allegations during the previous hearing, the interrogation record showed that he had allegedly avoided giving direct answers on several occasions.
The court had earlier sought the written record of Roy’s questioning after hearing the state’s allegations that he had not cooperated with investigators.
The state maintained that the interrogation record supported its contention that further questioning was required.
Roy was represented by advocates Gopalshankar Narayan and Ayan Bhattacharya.
The matter is scheduled to come up again before the Chief Justice-led bench on Thursday.
Police had searched Abhishek’s Kalighat residence
The case had earlier triggered a major political controversy after police reached Abhishek Banerjee’s Kalighat residence while looking for Roy in connection with the Shalboni case.
According to the allegations, police conducted a search at the residence after breaking open the locks late at night. Roy was not found there at the time. Subsequently, multiple cases were registered in connection with the investigation.
The state has previously told the Supreme Court that its probe had uncovered financial transactions involving lakhs of rupees.
During an earlier hearing, the Solicitor General had also alleged that substantial sums were deposited into the account of a political party.
The state further claimed that investigators had found transactions worth around ₹30 crore between that political party and a company associated with Abhishek Banerjee, Leaps and Bounds.
The state has argued that these financial transactions, along with the deposits into Roy’s account, require further investigation and questioning.
The allegations are part of an ongoing investigation and have not been established by a final judicial finding. The Supreme Court is expected to hear further arguments on Roy’s plea on Thursday.
