law seems to have caught up with Bengal’s ruling party in the multi-crore chit-fund case with an FIR being lodged against Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh. The move has come not from the police but the people — the staff of a sinking television channel owned by Saradha Group.
The staff, including journalists of Channel 10, lodged an FIR with the Park Street police station late on Thursday night against Ghosh and other Saradha honchos like Somnath Dutta, the vice president. Dutta is close to TMC MP and actress Shatabdi Roy.
Ghosh and others have been charged with non-payment of salary dues for the past three months despite repeated assurances. “Non-bailable charges have been brought against the accused,” a senior police officer said.
The Opposition wondered as to why the police did not file an FIR against Ghosh, the CEO of Saradha’s media division and claimed the FIR lodged by the staff as a “stage-managed” action in order to dilute the case against him. Ghosh himself called the development an “unfortunate” one and said he was also not paid his salary. Ghosh reportedly drew a salary of Rs 16 lakh per month.
He said, “some are pulling the threads from behind to implicate me” adding “I tried to revive the channel till last, but I failed.”
Ghosh who has been charged with “extortion” by Sudipto Sen (in his letter to the CBI) for forcing him to sell out the channel worth Rs 30 crore for Rs 55 lakh said, “I never pressurised any one. In fact Sen is still the owner of the company.”
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday launched a counter attack shifting the entire blame at the Opposition’s door charging the former left rulers and the Centre with complicity for not bringing a law to reign-in the fraudsters.
Attacking the Centre, Banerjee said, “The SEBI and RBI erred in failing to detect the scam which was their duty.”
A special session of the Bengal Assembly would be convened on April 29-30 to introduce a bill for the protection of investors following the Saradha Group scam which has hit thousands of investors.
After an all-party meeting in the Assembly , Speaker Biman Banerjee said that the new Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Bill 2013 would be tabled on the second day after the customary obituary references.
Three Sections of the old Bill would be replaced by “the new Bill that would have provisions of “search and seizure.”