Saradha threat to TMC top brass grows larger
As law enforcement authorities unravel the multi-crore Saradha scam, making fresh arrests and interrogating more suspects, it has become increasingly difficult to let allegations of top-level political support for the ponzi scheme go unheeded. The Trinamool Congress has failed to address the charges in a clear and transparent manner. Instead, it has sought to write off the matter as a conspiracy by political rivals, thereby fuelling an environment of suspicion and mistrust. The reputation of the party and the Government it leads in West Bengal has already been hit; some argue it has sustained serious damage. Even Chief Minister and party president Mamata Banerjee, whose personal integrity and incorruptible character was her biggest selling point, has not been spared. Sure, there is no evidence at this point to suggest that she personally benefited from the scam or that her Government indulged in any wrongdoing. But the fact is that ever since her former party colleague and then Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh, who served as a director of the tainted group, was arrested in November 2013, the scam has been nibbling away at her and the Trinamool Congress's political capital. Now, it threatens to swallow them whole.
A series of developments in the case has opened up a can of worms. At the top of the list is the arrest of Mr Rajat Majumdar by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The former Director General of West Bengal Police allegedly mapped out the escape plan for Saradha Group's boss Sudipta Sen when the company ran aground and angry investors where baying for his blood. Mr Majumdar was closely associated with the group, serving variously as ‘consultant' and ‘vice president'. After retiring from the police force, he joined the Trinamool Congress and is now reportedly close to the party's top leadership. The arrest of the former police chief comes only two days after Trinamool Congress MP Srinjoy Bose was interrogated by the CBI. As editor-in-chief of the Bengali daily Sangbad Pratidin, Mr Bose led the Saradha Group's vast media segment which was supposedly created to promote Chief Minister Banerjee. Mr Sen has also alleged that he took Rs20 crore to keep the group's murky activities away from the headlines and allow its boss easy access to the Chief Minister. And that's not all.
This past week, Trinamool Congress MP Ahmed Hassan Imran was interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate for a second time. He was executive editor of Kalom, another Saradha-linked Bengali newspaper. The ED is investigating if he had deeper links with the tainted corporate. Yet another hit has come from party leader Asif Khan who is also close to the TMC top brass, and who quit the party a day after he was interrogated by the CBI. The premier probe agency has also questioned another Trinamool Congress loyalist and businessman Samir Chakraborty, who took charge of Saradha affiliate Channel 10 after the group collapsed. And as if all of this was not enough, last week Mr Ghosh demanded from behind bars that the CBI jointly interrogate him with Mr Sen and Ms Banerjee. It is unclear if the CBI will do anything of the sort, but surely the Chief Minister could have done without being clubbed with a scamster yet again.
