Days after Narada News CEO Mathew Samuels clarified that the sting story done by him on a galaxy of Trinamool Congress MPs and Ministers and MPs was funded by the party MP and Alchemist boss KD Singh, the Bengal Economic Offence Wing on Monday started identifying properties of the drug manufacturing company in the State.
Two FIRs have already been lodged — in a span of seven days — against Singh and two others under the new chit fund laws in Bengal following an upheaval within the TMC demanding strong action against the party Rajya Sabha MP who had “stabbed in our back.”
Apart from launching probe about Alchemist’s alleged chit fund links the SIT has also petitioned the HC seeking permission to confiscate the company’s illegal properties so that the same could be distributed among the depositors in the chit fund case.
“The Government will start confiscating the properties after identification and after the receiving the Court order,” sources said. However, the Opposition left and the BJP said the TMC was more interested in saving Singh and his property than confiscating it.
Though there was no official word from the company’s side, TMC sources close to Singh wondered why actions were being taken against the company now when the chit fund case itself was more than four years’ old.
“It seems that KD Singh and his company are being victimised as a part of vendetta politics by the Government. We have information that the CM is under pressure to frame Singh,” a leader close to Singh said.
According to sources Mamata Banerjee too is willing to tread cautiously in this case particularly because at least two Trinamool Congress leaders with national reach have close connections with Singh Though a majority section of the Trinamool want action against Singh which is why a party core committee meeting has been called on April 1, a minority yet powerful section wants to follow a “wait and watch” policy. On Monday Trinamool workers staged protest demonstrations in front of Alchemist offices in Durgapur and other places.
Top Trinamool leaders like Subroto Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Subhendu Adhikary, Sovan Chatterjee all Ministers and Sultan Ahmed, Kakoli Ghoshdastidar, Saugato Roy, Aparupa Poddar and Prasun Banerjee all MPs apart from MlA Iqbal Ahmed and IPS officer SMH Mirza were seen in the video tapes aired in March 2016 accepting cash from a Narada journalist posing as a prospective investor in the State.