The Enforcement Directorate has summoned former Trinamul MP Mahua Moitra, party veteran Mukul Roy and actor turned MP Deepak Adhikari aka Dev to Delhi for questioning in separate cases.

Mahua has been summoned to face questioning on February 19, Dev on February 21 and Roy, who returned to Trinamul in 2021 after a stint with the BJP, on February 16.

Mahua, disqualified as MP on the ground of letting outsiders influence the questions she asked in the Lok Sabha, faces a preliminary CBI probe in the matter following a referral from the Lokpal.

Senior officials of the ED, which is investigating one aspect of the case, said Mahua’s statements would be recorded under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

Dev, MP from Ghatal in West Midnapore, has been summoned in connection with the agency’s probe into the money trail relating to an alleged cattle smuggling racket, ED officials said.

Dev. Picture: Ananda Adhikari

Dev had recently created a flutter by resigning from three party committees in his constituency but eventually decided to continue in Trinamul. The ED summons to him comes days after that decision.

On Sunday, a day after meeting Mamata and having a brief session with Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s national general secretary, Dev had said that Mamata’s opinion mattered a lot to him. “Politics will not leave me even if I want to leave politics,” he had said.

Mamata had followed it up by accepting a request from her “brother” Dev on Monday and saying that if the Centre didn’t provide the funds, the state government would implement the much-needed “Ghatal master plan” on its own.

“We will seek clarifications from him (Dev) on a few things that have emerged from our investigations so far in the cattle smuggling case,” a senior ED official said, refusing details.

Bengal Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari has alleged that Dev collected Rs 5 crore from Enamul Haque, the prime accused in the cattle smuggling case, towards making a film.

The CBI, which too is probing the cattle smuggling case, had questioned Dev for over five hours in February 2022. Dev later said he neither knew nor had financial transactions with anyone named Enamul Haque.

On Sunday, Suvendu said the CBI and the ED were not yet done with Dev. The summons to Dev arrived four days later.

Dev was not available for comments. A source close to him said the 41-year-old MP had said he would answer the summons.

Trinamul reacted sharply to the summons issued to Dev.

“Dev was being pressured by the BJP and its senior leaders. He is being harassed because he refused to budge. Jo jhukega nahi, uske ghar me agency bhej dega BJP (He who doesn’t bend will have the agencies sent to his home by the BJP),” Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

“Our national general secretary (Abhishek), his family, his associates have been harassed likewise.”

Senior ED officials said Mukul Roy had been summoned in a case of money-laundering allegedly involving Alchemist, a deposit-mobilising company.

The primary charge against Alchemist is that it raised Rs 1,900 crore from the market without securing the necessary approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

In January 2021, the ED had arrested K.D. Singh, former Trinamul Rajya Sabha member and founder of Alchemist Infra Reality Limited, in connection with the case.

Mukul’s son Subhranshu, a former Trinamul MLA, said that given his father’s failing health, it would not be possible for him to go to Delhi. “If ED officials come to our home, we will extend all cooperation,” he said.

Later in the night, Trinamul sources said Patashpur MLA and East Midnapore zilla parishad chief Uttam Barik had received a summons from the income-tax department to come with details of his income over the past five years.

Earlier in the day, Mamata had told the Assembly: “They are using central agencies to arrest dissidents all over the country but this is all being done through illegal means. The BJP doesn’t just do du-nombori (ordinary illegality), it engages in chaar-nombori (enhanced illegality).”

Mamata has stood rock solid behind Mahua, a first-time MP who had been elected from Krishnanagar in Nadia, saying the BJP may have thrown her out but she would return with the people’s support.

“Mahua remains an important choice for the party for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Abhishek has complete confidence in her ability to fight her own battles,” a Trinamul leader and one of the party’s observers for Krishnanagar district said on Thursday.

Last November, Trinamul had appointed Mahua president of its Krishnanagar district unit, replacing Kallol Khan.