A CBI team probing the Saradha case received on Thursday 10 paintings by chief minister Mamata Banerjee from businessman Shibaji Panja.

The agency wants to assess the value of the paintings and verify the buyers’ source of funds, sources said.

The CBI had sent notices to Panja and his former business associate Kaustav Roy on the assumption that they had bought the paintings from an exhibition held at Town Hall in 2013.

“Panja has sent 10 paintings through his advocate but Roy has denied possessing any painting by the chief minister,” said a CBI source, adding that the agency has information that the 10 paintings fetched Rs 50 lakh.

Panja confirmed he had sent the 10 paintings to the CBI. “I had bought them from an exhibition at Gallerie 88 in 2011,” Panja told The Telegraph. Roy said he didn’t have any paintings by Mamata.

In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Narendra Modi had warned of a probe into why the chief minister’s paintings sold for high prices.

Benched CBI special director Rakesh Asthana was looking after the probe. Panja and Roy said they were being unnecessarily dragged into the case. “I have already submitted documents disclosing the source of the funds spent on the paintings. The funding has no connection whatsoever with any chit fund,” Panja said.

Roy said: “As a businessman, I had paid money to Jago Bangla to publish advertisements (in the newspaper). But later I learnt that Mukul Roy, who was the printer and publisher of the paper at that time, had shown the money as the price of paintings in the Jago Bangla accounts. I have told the CBI to ‘please ask Mukul Roy about paintings’.”

Mukul Roy, who had been questioned by the CBI, is now in the BJP. Contacted, he said: “I have no involvement regarding these paintings.”