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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today blamed Trinamool Congress’ Member of Parliament (MP) Kunal Ghosh, who was the chief executive of the media wing of Saradha Group, for not informing her about non-payment of salaries to the company’s employees.
“Kunal did not tell me that those working in the channels were not getting salaries. I only got to know later finding out from some distressed employees of Tara channel (one of Saradha-owned channel),” Banerjee said at a public gathering today. “I asked Mukul (former railway minister and TMC general secretary Mukul Roy) to see to it that the channels and its employees are protected so that employees do not lose their jobs. The FIR was filed against Saradha on my direction.”
TMC MP bats for CBI probe
Going against the stance taken by TMC chief Banerjee, Somen Mitra, a TMC MP on Thursday demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation should investigate the Saradha scam.
Mitra said today in Delhi that only the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would be able to handle the case because Saradha and other chit fund companies have spread across many states from West Bengal to Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand and Bihar.
Mitra had recently written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to draw his attention to the growing menace of chit fund business in West Bengal.
The demand for a CBI inquiry has come from various quarters.
The Calcutta High Court, too, is hearing the case. A depositor, who was allegedly duped by the Saradha group, recently moved the High Court and the case is being heard by a division Bench comprising justices Biswanath Samaddar and Jaymalya Bagchi.
Justice Bagchi has already indicated that the court is actively considering asking CBI to investigate the case.
However, the state government has opposed the move and submitted a written affidavit on this matter. The court will hear the case tomorrow.
Somen Mitra had first written to the PM in 2011, giving a list of 11 major chit fund companies, including Saradha, that are active in the state. He had urged the PM to institute a full-scale inquiry into these companies, preferably by the CBI.
Later, he wrote some more letters to the PM.
A H Ghani Khan Chowdhury, a Congress MP from Malda, too, had written to the PM on the same topic, naming Saradha and Rose Valley.
However, the first whistleblower from TMC is Tapas Pal, an MP from Krishnanagar.
Way back in 2009, he had written to the then Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to complain against the growing activities of chit fund companies in West Bengal in general and in his constituency in particular.
After the Saradha bubble burst out, Pal recalled his leader was aware of the nature of his complaint. However, Banerjee today insisted that she came to know of this only on 15 April upon which she directed police to file a first information report.
She also hinted that the state government doesn’t want the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the scam. “Some are shouting for CBI investigation. I can only say everyone took note of what the Supreme Court recently said about the functioning of CBI,” Banerjee said, taking a dig at the Congress-led government at the Centre.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday rapped the investigative agency for sharing a probe draft report on coal block allocation with the law minister and some senior government officials.
Banerjee largely spoke on the Left and the Centre’s “inaction” that has led to a “mushrooming of chit fund companies.”
“These should be regulated by the Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India). But Sebi, which is under the Centre, took no action. The Left Front government also could not even bring a law to curb such companies,” she added.
