In what could further tighten the noose around the Trinamool Congress top brass, the CBI has accessed a CD containing election publicity programme prepared by a bevy of artists close to the Trinamool Congress camp and funded by chit fund kingpin and jailed Saradha boss Sudipto Sen.
Sources in the investigating agency which has been probing the case said the CD consisting the “Paribartoner Sapath” was prepared before the 2011 State elections but was not used because the Election Commission did not permit its use as it contained some religious verses.
The CBI sources also said that a number of artists and civil society members who later went on to become Trinamool representatives lent their voice in the CD funded by Sen who spent about `5.5 lakh besides employing the technical staff of Saradha television channels to prepare it.
The secret was revealed by three of Sen’s jailed colleagues and later confirmed by the Saradha chief himself, CBI sources said, adding, it was the first concrete evidence of Saradha-politicians nexus that had come the Agency’s way.
It is relevant to note that the CBI has slapped a July 31 deadline to the State police which had earlier been probing the multi-crore chit fund scam to hand over the evidences or face action.
The sources in the agency had been complaining of lack of cooperation from the police which it said had been withholding documentary and other evidences that it had recovered from the Saradha boss and his cronies while investigating the scam in the initial stages.
The agency sources also said that it had sought necessary permission from the Union Home Ministry to quiz a couple of senior IPS officers who had been handling the Saradha probe. “Some senior officials are likely to be investigated by the CBI and could be proceeded against if found guilty of tampering with evidence,” a CBI official said.
Among the said documentary evidences are a pen drive and a red note book belonging to Sen which had earlier been seized from Sen by the police and which had not yet been handed over to the CBI.
“The CBI is aware that some officials are under intense pressure from the political superiors and may have done something with the evidences. But they will have to produce those documents in any case,” an official said, adding, “If at all these have been destroyed then these officials would be in problem.”