Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy involved in Saradha scam, alleges suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh
In a sensational allegation, suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh on Monday said party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is involved in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
“Mamata Banerjee is using her clout to influence the case of Saradha scam. She and Mukul Roy have jointly siphoned off money of Saradha chit fund. I don’t understand that when I am arrested, I am kept in jail but why are ministers who are arrested on similar allegations given VIP treatment,” Ghosh told a CBI court hearing the scandal that has singed the Mamata government in West Bengal for months now. Mukul Roy is a former Union Railways Minister and a senior Trinamool leader.
Kunal Ghosh was arrested in November last year for cheating, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy in a case related to a complaint by a Saradha Group firm called Broadcast Worldwide about its failure to pay salaries to its employees. Within hours of his arrest, the journalist-turned-politician had named 12 people behind the scam in a Facebook post. One of the names in that list was Mamata Banerjee’s.
Earlier this month, West Bengal Transport Minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Madan Mitra was arrested by the Centeal Bureau of Investigation in connection with the scam. The CBI said Mitra was arrested on prima facie evidence of criminal conspiracy, cheating, misappropriation and deriving undue financial benefits from the Saradha Group after five hours of questioning by the investigating agency.
Mitra’s arrest came weeks after the investigating agency arrested Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose, accused of blackmailing Saradha Group chief Sudipto Sen into paying him Rs.60 lakh a month, an allegation he later denied.
The Trinamool Congress has slammed the investigation into the Saradha scam, calling it a politics of “vindictiveness”. “Who is CBI? What is their jurisdiction? There are so many other cases about which they’re sitting quietly. Why hasn’t any Left leader been arrested for any scam,” Mamata had said earlier this month.
