Jailed TMC MP says Bengal CM is prime beneficiary of ponzi group’s media campaign
Jailed Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh has for the first time implicated Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam saying the Trinamool Congress supremo is the sole and primary beneficiary of the media campaigns organised by the Ponzi fund group.
In a damaging 91-page letter written to the CBI which has now taken the investigation over from the State police following a Supreme Court directive, Ghosh has alleged that none had derived more benefit than Banerjee from Saradha’s media campaigns but for which her Trinamool Congress would not have been able to win the 2011 elections, reports in Bangla news channel 24 Ghanta said.
Though the legal implications of the letter is debatable, its timing assumes significance as the CBI has just started to probe the multi-crore scam and is looking for leads as to where large amount of money collected from the people went and who were the people that might have benefited from the scam.
In his letter, the jailed MP, once a blue-eyed boy of the Chief Minister, has once again expressed his “disgust and disappointment” at the way the State police had been probing the case “obviously at the instance of its political bosses”.
Reports of Ghosh’s letter come at a time when the Enforcement Directorate is reportedly planning to file charge sheet against a number of Trinamool functionaries for their alleged involvement in the scam.
Wondering as to why he was not being quizzed face-to-face with Saradha chief Sudipto Sen, the jailed journalist-turned-politician has said that had it not been for the Saradha’s newspapers and channels, Banerjee would not have won the elections.
Had the Congress-Trinamool alliance been the real reason behind Banerjee’s triumph in 2011 then she would have won in 2001 as well but that did not happen, Ghosh said insisting it was because of the Saradha that she could come to power in Bengal.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate that is also probing the Saradha scam has stumbled upon 338 bank accounts and 224 fake firms — that existed only on paper —through which huge sums collected from the depositors of Assam and Odisha were siphoned off, sources said.
The ED sources added that they had been able to break a jigsaw puzzle through which the amounts deposited by lakhs of depositors from Odisha, Bengal and Assam were transferred to unknown destinations.
Sources said that only about “90 per cent of such companies existed on paper and only 17 out of 224 companies actually carried out some business.” The remaining firms were used as dummy companies to cover up the whole dubious business, ED sources said, adding the total amount laundered through such companies could be around Rs 1,983 crore, which the investigating agency identified as “proceeds of crime” as per the provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act.
Curiously most of these companies --- some of which even functioned from a single address at Behala in South Kolkata --- were shown to be running in loss.
The ED was particularly probing the roles of the companies like Saradha Realty Pvt ltd, Saradha Tours and Travels Pvt ltd, Saradha Garden Resort and Hotel Pvt ltd and Saradha Housing Pvt ltd. The Directorate has also found that the depositors were not given any policy certificate though they were promised high returns by violating the laws.
It has also been found that the four companies of Saradha had mobilised about Rs 2,459.59 crore by issuing policies between 2008 and 2012. While the depositors were paid Rs 475 crore, the companies still owed Rs 1,983 crore to them.
Informing that the Central agency was planning to quiz at least 7 top Trinamool functionaries, sources said the amount was allegedly channelled into various investments through these fake accounts and companies. The ED is likely to file a formal charge sheet in the case sources said.