In a sensational twist to the Saradha chit fund case, jailed Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh lived up to his threat and attempted to commit suicide by consuming sleeping pills in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
The incident, that exposed the lax security in the high security Presidency Jail, where Ghosh, a key accused in the multi-crore fraud case was lodged for the past several months, took place within 72 hours of the suicide threat he held out in an open court “if the other high-profile personalities, including Ministers and MPs were not arrested in three days’ time.” Ghosh was the CEO of the Saradha media group.
The number of sleeping pills he reportedly consumed varied according to who was describing the incident. Police said a case of attempted suicide against him has been lodged at the Hastings Police Station even as the State Government suspended Jail Superintendent Navin Saha, doctor Gautam Dasgupta and a staff on duty.
“The patient is currently stable and out of danger,” the SSKM Director Pradip Mitra said.
“He was brought to the hospital after 3 am in a semi-conscious state when he said that he had consumed about 30-40 pills. We washed his stomach thereafter and the contents have been sent for forensic tests,” the hospital superintendent said. Ghosh had reportedly consumed the pills in between 6 pm and 1.30 am, sources quoting him said. He had taken Alphrazolam tablets, insiders said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was later confronted by the Opposition in the Assembly, said: “Though he is known to have told the medical staff at the SSKM Hospital where he is currently being treated in the CCU that he had taken 30-40 pills, it is unlikely that he had taken so many.”
Curiously, sources said, despite Ghosh’ suicide threat not a step was taken to prevent it and things were allowed to be as they were, provoking the CBI to question the lackadaisical approach of the jail authorities.
Incidentally, no one from Ghosh’s family had met him in the past few days, deepening the suspicion about how he could lay his hands on so many sleeping pills, sources said adding the jail authorities were so lax that neither the doctors nor the guards bothered to check whether he was stocking the pills that were given to him upon legal medical prescriptions as he has a sleeping disorder.
What seemed to make things suspicious was an earlier petition filed by his wife who feared a threat to his life.
Even as angry reactions poured in from all sides, the BJP’s central observer for Bengal Sidharth Nath Singh wondered how “the Bengal Police and the jail authorities allowed him to take the suicidal step after he had made his intention to commit suicide clear.”
The BJP demanded a CBI probe into the suicide attempt. State BJP president Rahul Sinha said there was a deliberate attempt to silence Ghosh’s voice so that many people could be saved. “But I can assure you, that sooner than later, these influential people will be in the same place where Ghosh is today.”
Reacting to the incident CPI(M) leader and senior counsel Bikas Bhattacharya said: “The prime question is how did he have so many sleeping pills in his cell. This must be probed first because there could be a political conspiracy behind it.”
Congress leader and PCC member Abdul Mannan said: “Some people in the ruling party seem to have tried to take advantage of the suicide threat he made a few days ago. This must be probed.”
Meanwhile, the CBI’s Special Investigation Team probing the inter-State chit fund scam, on Friday registered five cases against a similar number of companies in West Bengal. The companies booked in the cases include Angel Group of Companies, PAFl Industries ltd, Royal International Trading, Win Realcon ltd. and ASSDA Agro Projects ltd. These companies are other than the Saradha Group of companies that are already under the CBI scanner.