Kolkata, Jan 30 (IANS): Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy, considered West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's right hand man, Friday faced a four-and-a-half hour grilling by the CBI in the multi-crore rupee Saradha ponzi scam.

Coming out of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office at CGO complex in Salt Lake in the afternoon, Roy said he wanted the truth to come out and the investigation to move in the right direction.

"I met the investigators today. They have questioned me for a long time. I have told them that if they need me for the sake of the probe, I will meet them and cooperate not once, but every time when they call me," the former railway minister told media persons.

"Let the truth be revealed. Let the investigation move in the right direction," he said.

"Not once, if the need be, they can call me repeatedly and I will cooperate. I feel the truth should be revealed. The poor people who have lost their money, they want that justice is not denied," he said.

Roy reiterated that from the outset he had been saying he was prepared to join the probe and cooperate with the CBI.

"Even this morning I have said I am going to the agency for the sake of the probe. I arrived exactly at 10.30 a.m., the time scheduled for me," he said.

A CBI source later said that Roy might be summoned again for questioning.

Earlier, on his arrival at the CBI office, Roy said: "I am here to cooperate with the CBI."

Roy, Trinamool's key organiser, claimed he had not done anything unethical. "Never in my life, in my personal capacity or with regard to party work, have I done anything unethical."

Summoned Jan 12 by the CBI, which is probing the scandal on the orders of the Supreme Court, Roy had twice obtained deferrals for his appearance.

He had been frequenting Delhi and talking to lawyers as his party as well as the Banerjee government moved the apex court seeking that the probe be monitored by the Supreme Court, alleging that the CBI was acting as an "instrument" of the BJP-led central government and targeting Trinamool leaders.

In the morning, as Roy boarded the car outside his central Kolkata house, Trinamool loyalists shouted slogans of "Mukul Roy zindabad, Mamata Banerjee zindabad, "Stop CBI conspiracy against Trinamool".

A large number of Trinamool workers were also present outside the CGO complex and shouted anti-CBI slogans during Roy's arrival and later on when he left after the grilling.

While the Trinamool had given a call for hitting the streets following Transport Minister Madan Mitra's arrest by the CBI, Roy said he was not in favour of anything that might inconvenience the public.

"The legal and the political fights will continue, but I am not in favour of anything that might inconvenience the common man," said Roy whose party workers had earlier staged demonstrations outside the CBI office.

While four Trinamool leaders including Mitra are behind bars, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have grilled a number of party parliamentarians and legislators.

Trinamool's suspended Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh, now under arrest for his alleged role in the scam, has claimed Roy's complicity in the scam. Asif Khan, a one-time close associate of Roy and now under arrest in connection with a cheating case, has also accused Roy of wrongdoing.

Roy, credited as the architect of the TMC victory in all recent elections and a major player in extending the party base as also in organising defections from other parties, has been under fire for his alleged meetings and telephonic conversations with Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen.

But Roy and the Trinamool have vehemently denied all the charges.

Sudipta Sen and several of his cronies are now behind bars for the scandal which came to light in April 2013. The company downed shutters across Bengal after being unable to pay back the depositors -- mainly poor people who, lured by the promise of huge returns, parked their life's savings with the firm.

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