In what could give goosebumps to top Trinamool brass, jailed ponzi kingpin Sudipto Sen (now in custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation) has revealed the names of “four very influential politicians” including two MPs and two Bengal Ministers, considered very close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in connection with the multi-crore chit-fund scam.
The CBI was also trying to know, under whose instructions he had fled Kolkata in April 2013 after his business collapsed, and whether the politicians he had named were in touch with him while he was on the run before being arrested from Sonmarg in Kashmir, officials who quizzed Sen for hours on Friday said.
Curiously Sen had left a letter for the CBI before he fled Kolkata. The CBI has found that only portions of the letter was leaked to the media while the names of some “big fishes” given in its annexure were held back. Incidentally, the Chief Minister had soon after Sen’s escape had “conjectured “ about his whereabouts saying he was somewhere in North India.
The Agency sources also said that top East Bengal Club official Debabrata Sarkar who was arrested on Wednesday evening, following marathon grilling, had told them about two more Club officials through whom the chit cash was routed to other sources including business ventures.
Sarkar had invested hugely in tourism industry in Goa from his ill-gotten money that he extracted from Sen by using threats. In fact the CBI had earlier recovered from Sarkar’s house “show-cause” letters written by SEBI to Sen. The recovery of the letter written by the SEBI to Sen from Sarkar’s house tended to lend credence to Saradha boss’s claim that he gave money to many people including Sarkar “to manage” the SEBI and other market regulators.
The other two officials of the football club would also be summoned soon, sources said adding the CBI sleuths would carry on further investigations in Goa where Sen’s money was invested in hospitality industry.
The CBI sources also said quoting Sen that out of a monthly Rs 70 lakh given to Sarkar, Rs 35 lakh was paid to a senior SEBI official and Rs 10 lakh was given to “one Mr Sil of the RBI.” The agency sources said they were “gathering more information on the issue” and could soon interrogate the SEBI and RBI officials.
On whether the CBI would interrogate State Textiles Minister SP Mukherjee and Trinamool Rajya Sabha Ahmed Hassan Imran already summoned by the Enforcement Directorate, sources said “soon a host of them would be called for interrogation as CBI has enough evidence in its hands.”
Imran who was the editor of two pro-Trinamool newspapers and channels was last year sent to Rajya Sabha by the Trinamool Congress. The ED investigating the money-laundering part of the Saradha scam has reportedly found that Hassan had bought over the media houses from Sudipto Sen without having paid the price.
Meanwhile, a senior Trinamool Congress leader and State Transport Minister Madan Mitra whose name has repeatedly come up for his alleged links with Sen was on Thursday admitted to a private hospital in Kolkata even as he complained of breathing problems.