In a curious co-incidence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent public speech whence she said that her Trinamool Congress was not liable for the acts of corruption by any individual member of the outfit, TMC general secretary Sankudeb Panda was on Wednesday subjected to four-hour intense grilling by the CBI currently investing the “larger conspiracy angle” of the Saradha and other chit fund cases.
The embarrassment for the Bengal ruling outfit came within a fortnight Calcutta High Court cancelling the bail of senior party leader and former Minister Madan Mitra who was currently cooling his heels behind the bar along with party colleague and MP Kunal Ghosh for the past more than a year now.
According to CBI sources Panda who was mysteriously untraceable for a few days but emerged at the CBI office on Wednesday shared some information but withheld many prompting the officers to question him in two sessions. He had again been summoned a few of days later with documents to buttress his claims.
Panda was asked about how much money he had received from the news channels run by the Saradha chit fund group —“and for what services rendered” — sources said adding they had come to know that he had received anywhere between `25-50 lakh from jailed Saradha chairman Sudipto Sen. When Panda reportedly told the CBI that he received salary for working with a Saradha-owned news channel he was asked to submit the relevant papers containing the nature of his job, sources said.