Kolkata: Carrying forward its probe into the Saradha scam, the CBI yesterday grilled Trinamool Congress MP Srinjoy Bose for seven hours. As the political temperatures rose in West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool announced indefinite protest sit-in outside the agency’s office here from today.
While the opposition trained guns on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in connection with the multi-billion rupee scam, the Trinamool dubbed the Central Bureau of Investigation as a pawn used to settle political scores by the BJP-led central government.
Bose, owner-editor of the Bengali daily Pratidin, was quizzed by CBI sleuths at its office located within the CGO complex of the satellite township of Salt Lake.
Bose was named by alleged scam mastermind and Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen in a letter he purportedly wrote to the CBI in April last year.
Sen, now under arrest with his top aides, said in the letter that after he purchased a television channel, Bose alongwith a senior journalist of the newspaper, Kunal Ghosh, came to him and he had to make arrangement for paying Rs.60 lakh per month to the newspaper for running the channel.
“(The paper) has also given me assurance that on execution of this agreement they will protect my business from the government i.e from the state government and the central government, and I will be able to get a smooth passage and they assured me that they have very close connection with Mamata Banerjee.”
Coming out after the marathon interrogation, Bose said the CBI had called him for some clarification regarding his paper’s agreement with Saradha.
“We are always ready to cooperate with the law. And we have told them, whenever and whatever papers they seek, we will provide,” he said.
The CBI sleuths also questioned Samir Chakraborty, husband of Trinamool leader and Bidhannagar Municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty.
A day earlier, the CBI arrested Trinamool leader and former director general (armed police) of West Bengal Rajat Majumdar in connection with the scam.
Majumdar, the first Trinamool leader to be arrested by the CBI, complained of chest pain soon after being taken into custody and was rushed to the state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital.
Now admitted in the hospital’s Intensive Cardiac Care Unit, he is undergoing tests.
A court during the day gave deemed judicial custody of Majumdar to the CBI. A number of MPs and close associates of powerful leaders of the Trinamool have faced grilling from central agencies like the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Facing opposition rap over its leaders’ alleged involvement in the scam, the Trinamool launched a counter attack.
“The CBI is being used as a political agency. To protest against the misuse of the CBI to settle political scores, we will start an indefinite sit-in demonstration outside the CBI office at the Salt Lake CGO Complecx from 11am tomorrow (Thursday),” Trinamool Mahila Morcha West Bengal unit president Chandrima Bhattacharya told IANS.
Hours earlier, Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee alleged a conspiracy to “defame Mamata Banerjee, whose credibility is beyond question”.
IANS
