KOLKATA: The CBI has directed the SIT of the state police probing into the `2500-crore chit fund scam to submit all documents related to the innumerable criminal cases filed against Saradha Group chairman Sudipto Sen, suspended TMC MP Kunal Ghosh and five others by July 31, or face stern action.
Both the CBI and ED have been at loggerheads with the SIT over the files and documents belonging to Sen and his family members, banking transactions and property deeds for over a month.
The Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI on May 9. The investigation agency formed a SIT headed by CBI joint director Rajeev Singh to probe into the case. However, during its investigation, the CBI found out that the SIT of the state police had registered cases which were “legally weak and would be difficult to establish the crimes committed in a court of law”.
A CBI official said: “Even statements of complainants were not recorded properly. In several cases the language has been diluted. The state police could have easily started suo moto cases after arresting Sen following the complaint of former employee Arpita Ghosh and build up a strong case. It seems there was strong political pressure to hush up many facts which can implicate many politicians in the four states. Arpita Ghosh is a TMC MP in the Lok Sabha and has been questioned by the sleuths.”
“However, from what we have gathered, a majority of the politicians who took financial favours from Sen are from West Bengal and include ministers and MPs. There are some bureaucrats, senior police officials and former IPS officers who helped in the scam and accompanied Sen in several foreign trips,” he said.
The CBI has already sought permission from the Department of Personnel and Training of the Ministry of Home Affairs to question a senior bureaucrat and two IPS officers regarding their involvement in the multi-crore scam. The permission, which is expected any day, will affect the officers who are under the MHA and are now with the BJP government at the Centre.
The CBI after interrogating Sen, Kunal Ghosh, and Sen’s associates Debjani Mukherjee and Somnath Datta has recovered hard discs, a red diary and pen drives which have not been handed over to the state SIT.
A Central probe agency official said, “We have strong reasons to believe that many records have been interpolated and evidence has been destroyed by some senior state police officials at the direction of a senior bureaucrat. “Except for Kunal Ghosh, no other TMC politician was questioned. He was questioned 12 times and then arrested, but the politicians and officials he named were never even called for questioning, though there is photographic evidence available of them hobnobbing with Sen,” he pointed out.