KOLKATA: A political storm is brewing in the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, with several ministers and MLAs remaining apprehensive on whether Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee will be summoned for interrogation by the CBI in connection with the multi-crore Saradha scam.
And the fact that jailed Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh had joined the Opposition chorus on Mamata’s alleged involvement in the scam, made the TMC Ministers and MLAs all the more nervous regarding a possible move by the probe agency to summon the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, the ED on Wednesday questioned the general manager of a five-star hotel, who admitted that several TMC leaders, including ministers and MPs, were present at jailed Saradha chief Sudipto Sen’s dinner party.
In a related development, the Trinamool Congress appointed state Minister and former CBI Joint Director Upen Biswas to advise the party on “matters related to the CBI”.
TMC national secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy, who was summoned by the investigation agency for his alleged role in the “larger conspiracy”, reached here on Wednesday and met the CM at Nabanna, the new State Secretariat in neighbouring Howrah district.
Roy is expected to appear before sleuths at the CBI’s CGO Complex Office at Salt Lake here on Thursday.
The CBI wants to question Mukul about his role in the Saradha Group’s purchase of Bengali daily Dainik Kalam and magazine Deshkaal from Ahmed Hassan.
According to Mukul,“I will consult my party leaders and decide my future course of action. I have never been associated with any illegal or immoral activity in my life”.
Nonetheless, the Trinamool Congressleader has admitted that he had met the Saradha chief twice, once at Delo bungalow in Darjeeling hills and later when the group’s employees were facing a crisis as their salaries had not being paid.
It was alleged that Sen met Mamata and vowed his support to ensure that she became the “next Prime Minister”.
At her second meeting with Mukul,Mamata is said to have reprimanded him for disclosing the details of her Delo meeting.
She had earlier expressed her disappointment over Mukul’s disclosure that the contract between Saradha Tours and Travels and the Railway Ministry had been signed under Mamata’s watch Ghosh had also told the CBI that Sen had purchased Banerjee’s painting for a whopping `1.86 crore.
However, Mamata has until now remained tight-lipped on her meeting with Sen and the painting.
The Chief Minister had also claimed that she was unaware of the firm’s illegal dealings till the time Sen fled the city in April 2013.