Arpita Ghosh, TMC Lok Sabha candidate from Balurghat, who was associated with the Saradha's media arm, was today grilled for the second time by the ED in the morning for about two and half hours. She, however, refused to speak to the media on this. This is the second time that Ghosh--who is a prominent face in Mamata Banerjee's cultural clan--is being questioned by the ED.
TMC, however, today continued to firefight allegations about its connections with the scam-tainted Saradha group. A day after BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi warned about stern action against the culprit if the saffron party comes to power, TMC today hit out at Modi raking up Gujarat riots. What has struck a raw nerve is Modi raising questions about Mamata Banerjee's paintings.
In fact, TMC today demanded that the Gujarat Chief Minister apologise publicly or face a defamation case for questioning the sale of Mamata Banerjee's painting.
Modi, at a rally in Srirampore had said yesterday, "Your (Mamata's) paintings used to sell for Rs 4 lakh, Rs 8 lakh or Rs 15 lakh, but what is the reason that one of your paintings got sold for Rs 1.80 crore? I respect art. Who was the person who bought the painting for Rs 1.80 crore?"
TMC, in fact, today wrote to the Election Commission complaining that such "unsubstantiated" allegations were a violation of the model code of conduct.
Sudipta Sen, whom Modi had hinted as the buyer of the paintings, today denied this. "Ï have not bought any of Mamata's paintings," he said while he was being brought to a local court during a hearing. "The Chief Minister now needs a certificate from scam tainted Sudipta Sen," pat came Left's response.
Allegations and counter allegations have ensured that spectre of Saradha has come back to haunt Mamata Banerjee on the last day of campaign for the third phase of election in the nine constituencies spread across Birbhum, Bardhman, Howrah and Hooghly districts of West Bengal. Incidentally, these are some of the districts, many of the over one million duped investors of Sardha investors hail from.
Cornered by opposition's mounting attack over the issue, State finance minister Amit Mitra today defended TMC. Mitra said that all the money raised from the sale of paintings have either gone to charity or for funding the party's mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla', Mitra highlighted state government's effort to help the affected investors by providing compensation.
Meanwhile, the Shyamal Sen commission, which is in charge of recommending the government over compensation, today said that it would be selling two of the Saradha's newspapers to recover money. The commission received about 1.7 million applications during the probe. Although most of these involved Saradha, investors of other companies like Amazon, Suraha Microfinance, Sunmarg, ICore, Rose Valley and Alchemist too have registered their complaints with the commission and came up for hearing.