Actor-turned MP Mithun Chakraborty has sought a month’s time from the Enforcement Directorate for appearnce before it in a ponzi fund-related case.
The ED had earlier issued a summon to him asking him to appear within a week’s time at its Delhi or Kolkata office and get his statements recorded regarding his stated financial transactions with the Saradha chit fund company.
Alongside the CBI and Serious Fraud Investigation Office, the ED is also investigating the multi-crore Saradha fund scam that affected several lakhs of people across Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand and Tripura.
The lawyers of the Bollywood film star emerging from the ED office on Thursday said that the Trinamool MP had through them “prayed for a month’s time from the ED for appearance as he is busy in shooting and would be available only after a month.”
The actor would answer all the queries of the ED, the lawyers said denying any role “of our client” in any financial irregularity. They denied claims that Chakraborty had taken any money from the Saradha group other than his “professional fees for appearance.”
When asked to comment on reported claims that Chakraborty a brand ambassador of the Saradha media channels used to get a monthly sum of `20 lakh from the company, the lawyers said “all these are lies and none has any documentary evidence to prove this. He had not taken any money beyond what he charges as his professional appearance fee.”
Meanwhile, in a parallel development Saradha kingpin Sudipto Sen has reportedly denied writing a letter to the CBI charging a galaxy of politicians for their involvement in the chit fund scam.
Sources in the CBI said that Sen had told his interrogators that though the signature at the bottom of the letter written to the investigating agency more than a year ago was his he was not aware of the content of the letter as he had not written it.
The stated letter was written to the CBI days before the scam broke after his company defaulted in payments of depositors and Sen fled Kolkata for unknown destinations in northern India before being finally being arrested from Kashmir.
The CBI is taking the statement of Sen with “pinches of salt” because “his long association with interrogators might have hardened him.” In the stated letter to the CBI signed by Sen had taken the name of a number of influential people including several Trinamool Congress Ministers and MPs.
The CBI sources said Sen who was subjected to intense grilling for hours before he literally broke down was giving some vital information which the agency was not keen to share now. The CBI also refused to allow Sen to appear before Justice Shyamal Sen Commission which was also probing the case.