After breaking open the bank locker of Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen's wife Piyali Sen last night in a hurried operation, the Bidhannagar Police today sought to dismiss suggestion of any non-cooperation with the Enforcement Directorate which is probing the scam.
The Bidhanagar Police said that its midnight opening of the locker in the Salt Lake branch of a nationalised bank was only aimed at helping the ED which too was trying to open it.
The opening of the locker by the ED was thwarted by the West Bengal police thrice earlier. But the state police officials last night broke open the locker after procuring a court order and video-recorded the entire proceedings, raising the ED's eyebrows.
Bidhanagar police DC (DD) Arnab Ghosh said, "Our aim is not to non-cooperate with any investigating agencies. We have extended all cooperation to other investigating agencies."
The ED had arrested Sudipta Sen's wife Piyali Sen and son Subhojit recently after the Bidhannagar Police failed to arrest them despite investigating the case for the last one year.
Asked what prompted them to suddenly open the locker as it was under the custody of the Bidhannagar Police for the last one year, Ghosh said, "When we investigate we have our priorities. We would have opened the locker, may be after a month. But when we came to know that the ED too wanted to access it, we opened it only to help the ED."
Asked what was the wrong if the ED had opened the locker instead of the Bidhanagar Police, Ghosh wondered, "How can someone else open something which is under our premise (jurisdiction)? And how does it matter who opened it earlier? What matters is the contents of the locker and we are open to cooperate."
Apart from arresting Piyali and Subhojit, the ED also sent summons to theatre activist and Trinamool Congress candidate Arpita Ghosh who was associated with one of the TV channels belonging to the Saradha group, widening the investigation's net.
