The shady proceeds from the Saradha chit fund business had penetrated into Bangladesh and into the hands of some insurgent groups with middle-eastern connections working in that country.
If inside reports from the CBI now probing the multi-crore ponzi fraud are to be believed then Saradha kingpin Sudipto Sen routed huge amount of money to Middle East through a Bangladeshi insurgent group which rendered the service to the Saradha boss in lieu of a fat ‘service charge.’ The story does not end there. More surprising part of it all is a Trinamool Congress leader who is currently an MP acted has a go-between linking Sen and the Bangla insurgent, sources said.
It has been found after thorough interrogation of Sen and others that the foreign group engaged in insurgent activities against the Government of that country was running short of cash to continue its activities. As it was looking for a source to fund its activities in that country the stated Trinamool leader came to its rescue by introducing him to Sen, sources said adding the Saradha boss then enlisted his service to stash away crores in foreign countries "particularly the Middle East."
Incidentally quite a few Trinamool leaders have their business interests in the Middle East. “The Agency will ask this and many other questions when these influential people are called for interrogation" a CBI official said adding at least five "influential people" including a high-profile Bengal Minister and a couple of MPs have been short-listed for grilling.
“We have enough evidence to call them for interrogation. The names of these politicians have repeatedly cropped up during the interrogation of other suspects" sources said. On when these "influential people" would be called officials refused to give a specific date but added "soon." Meanwhile the CBI sources said they were frantically looking for "some key evidences" including a red notebook, pen-drive and some cashbooks in which daily transactions at Saradha's Midland Park head office was entered.
The CBI sleuths were told by Amreen Ara a private secretary to Saradha director Debjani Mukherjee that she had handed over the crucial materials to Bidhan Nagar Commissionerate officials who were investigating the case as a part of the Special Investigation Team before the CBI took over.
In fact Sen after fleeing from Kolkata in April 2013 had directed Amreen over telephone to destroy the diary, pen-drive et al. They contained daily entries of the cash paid to various persons including the "influential people." The notebook with such entries is of immense evidentiary value according to the Indian Evidence Act.
The CBI on Tuesday brought the suspected loss of the notebook and pen-drive to the notice of a city court even as it sought the extension of CBI remand for co-accused and East Bengal Club official Debabrata Sarkar.