The CBI on Tuesday took its first step catch the alleged big fishes in the multi-crore Saradha scam even as its officers rang up senior Bengal Minister Madan Mitra asking him to appear before the investigators by 10 am on Thursday.
“It was not an impolite but a stern direction to the Minister,” said insiders, adding that the officials called him up around 12.30 in the noon after getting green signal from the higher authorities.
Apart from summoning Mitra, as a precautionary measure, the CBI also reportedly alerted various Airport authorities against certain high-profile people involved in the Saradha case. On whether there was a fear of these people fleeing the country, none in the agency would however reply.
In another development, which might not seem entirely co-incidental, the ruling Trinamool on Tuesday tended to betray nerves in the wake summons issued to Mitra even as State Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee joined a rally protesting what he called “prejudiced investigation” of the Central agency. The rally was also joined by State law Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.
Coming back to Mitra; when asked as to whether he would respond to the summons by visiting the CBI office on Thursday the Minister refused to comment. “I am not bound to tell you anything. That is not my duty. No comments!” he said.
Mitra who had already earned a clean chit from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about his innocence had on an earlier occasion felt unwell against similar summons from the CBI and got himself admitted to a private hospital and from there to a Government facility. He was released from the hospital late last month after efforts to find grave health-related danger failed.
On whether the CBI had sufficient evidence to summon a heavyweight Minister of Mitra’s standing an official said “things may not end at summons only. The evidences are strong and bigger actions cannot wholly be ruled out.”
According to sources the CBI was armed with direct evidences of jailed Saradha chief Sudipta Sen’s “close connections” with some topmost people in power including Mitra.
Sen had reportedly told the CBI officials about how some politicians like Mitra extorted money from him. Sen’s deputy Debjani Mukherjee also brought same allegations, CBI sources said adding a dairy obtained from Saradha’s Midland Park office showed records of Sen giving away a vehicle to Mitra for his personal use.
A key accountant also deposed before the CBI saying how Mitra frequently visited the Saradha office, sources said. “There are a lot of missing links that he might connect” CBI sources said.
In a related development the Enforcement Directorate had found the photograph of a mansion from a set of deeds recovered from one of Sen’s properties. Though the clear location of the mansion was immediately not known the ED sources believed the vicinity suggested that house was located somewhere at louisiana in the USA.
Though there were no direct evidences of Sen having made any foreign trip the ED were trying to ascertain whether he travelled abroad on forged passports.
After having ascertained from existing evidences that the Saradha company had officially raised about `2,400 crore and after having located properties worth about `800 crore the ED were now trying to locate the whereabouts of remaining about `1,600 crores. “It has to be ascertained whether the money has been stashed away abroad” sources said.
When asked to comment on whether his participation in the rally demeaned the standing of the Chair he occupied Banerjee said “I am originally a lawyer and so I have come to join the rally as a lawyer.”
In a counter-rally a large number of BJP workers staged a demonstration at the CBI’s CGO office demanding immediate arrest of bigger players in the multi-crore scam.