As predicted earlier by Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra, “procession of the dead” continued in Bengal in the aftermath of the Saradha chit fund scam even as reports of agents and investors committing suicides coming in from various parts of the State.
This, even as the other chit fund companies started defaulting over the past fortnight after the panic-stricken depositors queued up at their offices to withdraw their amounts.
Close on the heels of three such deaths on Monday, Mrinal Kanti Mondal, an agent of another chit fund company from Sangrampur village at Basirhat in North 24 Parganas, committed suicide after depositors heckled him for their money even as the owner of the company downed the shutters and fled the area.
Mondal “consumed pesticide after villagers threatened him with taking possession of his house and lands,” sources said, adding he had even decided to sell his lands but finally took the extreme step.
Another suicide took place at Amherst Street in north Kolkata where the director of a Hooghly-based company in Indrajit Roy was found hanging from the ceiling of his room, police said. The Tuesday’s deaths took the chit-fund toll to 11 in the past 10 days.
Meanwhile, the Opposition left Front leadership on Tuesday said that a left delegation led by Bengal Opposition leader Suryakanto Mishra would meet the President, Prime Minister and Home Minister seeking a CBI inquiry.
“The left delegation will meet the President, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister and submit a memorandum to seek a CBI inquiry into this multi-crore scam as it affects lakhs of people of the State,” Front chairman Biman Bose said. The delegation would go to Delhi on May 9.
“The CBI is also not a holy cow but at least it is better than the State police which has not even registered an FIR against the main accused,” Bose said, adding the delegation would demand a CBI probe under judicial supervision. Former Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta would also go with the delegation, he said.
lF, Cong candidates for Howrah lS bypoll
Both Congress and the left Front on Tuesday declared their respective candidates for the June 2 Howrah lok Sabha by-elections.
While CPI(M) is fielding its State Secretariat member and engineer Sridip Bhattacharya, the Congress will nominate criminal lawyer Sanatan Mukherjee, the PCC sources said.
The Trinamool has already announced the name of former national football captain Prasun Banerjee as its candidate. “We are not concerned about who is fighting against us because the people will ultimately vote for Mamata Banerjee known for her integrity,” the Trinamool candidate said offering to “return my Arjun Award if anyone can prove my assertion on the Chief Minister wrong.”
The Howrah seat fell vacant after the demise of sitting Trinamool Congress MP Ambika Banerjee who had won the seat for 34,000 votes in 2009 general polls. The difference between the Trinamool and the left Front increased further in the 2011 Assembly elections to about 1.84 lakh.
The Congress and the Trinamool had fought the 2009 and 2011 elections by forming a grand alliance.
However this time round things are going to be a tad difficult for the ruling party in the light of its separation from the Congress and against the backdrop of alleged rise in crime against women, falling law and order situation, chit fund scam and flight of industry, political pundits feel.
Things could turn even worse once the BJP which has a sizeable following in Howrah fields its candidate leading to a four-cornered contest. Tri-cornered contests in recently held Assembly bypolls in Murshidabad districts saw the Congress, left and the Trinamool winning one seat each.