The West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress has lost its second “vital wicket” to Saradha chit fund scam. In a major body blow to the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s controversy-hit Trinamool Congress, the CBI on Friday arrested party’s Rajya Sabha member Srinjoy Bose, a close aid of Banerjee for his alleged involvement in the mutli-crore Ponzi scam.
In a fit of rage, Mamata thundered why instead of punishing the Saradha bosses, who looted the people, the CBI is chasing those who looted Saradha. She was addressing a rally at Barrackpore moments after Bose’s arrest.
Bose was arrested after more than six hours of intense grilling during which he refused to cooperate.
Meanwhile, according Bengali new channel — ABP Ananda, the Enforcement Directorate has frozen noted painter Shuvaprasanna’s 26 accounts in connection with Saradha scam.
“Srinjoy Bose was arrested for his prima facie involvement in the chit fund case on charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal misappropriation of funds and deriving unlawful financial benefits,” the official said.
An editor of a Bengali daily run by his own company Bose is the son of shipping magnate and former Rajya Sabha member Swapan Sadhan (Tutu) Bose and nephew of historian and former Viswabharati Vice-Chancellor Nemai Sadhan Bose, also a former Member of the Upper House.
According to sources, the Trinamool MP failed to give “satisfactory answer” to a host of questions, including why he took a monthly Rs 60 lakh from jailed Saradha chief Sudipto Sen and what he did with the money. He could only give an account of Rs 34 lakh, sources said.
He also gave “wayward explanations” on why his newspaper that wrote venomous articles against Saradha’s business in the beginning entered into a partnership agreement with a television channel owned by the same chit fund company. Bose faces allegations that he used his political profile to extort huge amount of money from Sen.
The MP also failed to reply as to why he accepted money from Sen on other heads and how he diverted them to other sources, sleuths said adding he would not also reveal details of his other businesses both in India and abroad.
Bose is the second party MP after Kunal Ghosh and sixth person including senior party leader Rajat Majumdar to be arrested in the Saradha scam.
Incidentally, he is also the second in the list of key TMC big guns mentioned by the Chief Minister in one of her previous speeches when she blamed the CPI(M) for “conspiring against us in Saradha case” and asked “Is Kunal a thiefIJ Is Tumpai (Srinjoy) a thiefIJ Is Madan a thiefIJ Is Mukul (Roy) a thiefIJ Am I a thiefIJ”
Madan Mitra, her Transport Minister, whose name repeatedly came up in the scam had been summoned by the CBI for appearing on Friday. He vanished on Thursday from a renowned private hospital and appeared two hours later at Government hospital. He was currently being guarded by an impregnable police cordon and a team of doctors.
Incidentally, Kunal Ghosh once Banerjee’s Man Friday, before the duo fell apart had recently said that “if anyone who has benefitted the most from the Saradha scam it is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.”
Reacting to the arrest Rahul Sinha, BJP State president said “all the Trinamool leaders have looted the gullible people all these years. Now it is the time for punishment and they will definitely get punished,” adding “more and bigger leaders will soon be arrested. I feel relieved now that the poor people who were robbed off their hard-earned savings will now get some money back.”
The Bengal opposition parties considered the arrest of Bose who was earlier thrice grilled by SFIO and ED as “fall of a vital Trinamool wicket” even as Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury iterated “the CBI has pulled the ear now the head will come.”
The political shop opened by Mamata Banerjee with Saradha money would “now close down,” CPI(M) MP Md Salim said. Marxist advocate and former Kolkata Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, who also fought a PIl demanding CBI probe in the case in Supreme Court, said “there is no doubt that Srinjoy Bose is a key link and he has many secrets to reveal. One hopes this case will reach its logical end.”
Another Trinamool leader and State Minister SP Mukherjee who was also grilled by the CBI for selling a closed cement factory worth a few lakhs to the Sudipto Sen for several crores reportedly told his interrogators that “I sold the factory to him because he gave me more money than the market value” adding “there is no law in Bengal on price ceiling”.”
Senior Congress leader and former Trinamool MP Somen Mitra, who was also questioned by the CBI later told the media that his “opinion about the CBI changed today because their way of questioning is humiliating.” He was questioned for more than two hours.