Kolkata: The CBI yesterday arrested Rajat Majumdar, a leader of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and former director general of the state armed police, in connection with the multi-billion-rupee Saradha chit fund scam.
Majumdar, the first Trinamool leader to be arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the scandal, complained of chest pain soon after being taken into custody and was rushed to the state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital.
Majumdar, who occupied crucial posts like inspector general (Railways) during his long Indian Police Service career, is the third person arrested by the investigating agency in West Bengal in connection with the scam, which is said to have spread across various states and whose monetary value could well be more than Rs100bn.
While suspended Trinamool parliamentarian Kunal Ghosh was arrested by the Special Investigation Team of the state police last year, a minister, several parliamentarians and close associates of powerful leaders of the party have been grilled by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Probing the scandal on the Supreme Court’s orders, the CBI quizzed Majumdar for the second time yesterday. He faced the first round of questioning on August 23.
Majumdar had worked as a security advisor for the tainted Saradha Group after his retirement as a police officer in 2008.
The arrest was made last evening after three hours of questioning.
“He has been arrested on grounds of conspiracy, cheating and misappropriation of funds,” said a CBI spokesperson.
The investigative agency has registered four first information reports in the scam.
Majumdar’s name cropped up after journalist-turned-Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Ghosh, now behind bars, accused him of swindling millions of rupees in organising a cultural programme in Las Vegas in 2012.
Majumdar joined the Trinamool in recent years and served as the party’s poll observer for Birbhum district for the 2013 panchayat election.
On August 14, CBI sleuths raided Majumdar’s residence and seized many documents.
Majumdar, who has been denying all allegations against him, will be presented before a court today.
The CBI yesterday also grilled Kolkata businessman Asif Khan — a former convenor of Trinamool’s Uttar Pradesh unit.
Khan, editor of Bengali daily Aajker Kalom, later told media persons that he had come on his own and would fully cooperate with the CBI probe.
He was grilled by the CBI on Monday too.
Meanwhile, the ED yesterday questioned Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Ahmed Hassan Imran over his alleged financial transactions with the Saradha Group.
Imran is the editor of Kalom, a vernacular daily that was owned by the Saradha Group till 2013, when it was bought by the Kalom Welfare Association.
The Saradha scam came to light in April 2013 after the group downed shutters without repaying thousands of investors, who had parked their hard-earned money in the group’s companies, lured by the promise of astronomically high returns.
IANS
