With the Supreme Court ordering a CBI inquiry into Saradha chit fund scam two days ahead of the last round of polling in Lok Sabha elections, Mamata Banerjee today said it did not matter to her.
"They are thinking that the CBI enquiry was given just two days before before the election. What does it matter to me?" the Trinamool Congress chief said referring to the opposition parties training their guns on her party over the Saradha scam.
"Truth will come out. Fire cannot be covered with ashes. They have said whatever they wanted to", she said.
CBI had not been able to arrest the accused in the Netai killing of nine people in West Midnapore district in February 2011 but it was the state CID which could do so, she said.
The opposition has alleged Trinamool Congress had close links with Sudipto Sen, chairman of the bust Saradha Group.
Stating that chit funds were governed by the Centre and not the state, Banerjee, the Chief Minister, said "who governs chit funds?. It is not under the state government but the central government.
"Why did you sleep for 30 years? This was our complaint. Why did you keep silent during CPI(M) rule?
"I have been saved. They will have to return the money. I was returning the money to the poor from the government fund," she said referring to the Shyamal Sen Commission set up by her government to pay defrauded investors.
Dwelling on action taken by her government in the ponzi scam, she said arrests were made and charge-sheets issued in 286 cases, while the commission set up to refund defrauded investors returned money to four lakh investors and another 2.5 lakh would be refunded.
Banerjee, who has promised a new law to crack down on ponzi firms, said an anti-chit fund bill which was passed in the state assembly was not being cleared by the Centre for the last three years.
She said her government wanted to bring an ordinance to protect investors but first the Centre must withdraw the current law.
Banerjee also alleged the previous Left Front government had allowed ponzi companies to flourish in West Bengal since 980s.
Meanwhile, welcoming the CBI inquiry, TMC General Secretary Mukul Roy told an election meeting at Krishnanagar in Nadia district that if links of the party with the scam was proved, then it would leave the political scenario.
He also said there could be an inquiry by the Interpol.
