KOLKATA: West Bengal's Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for action against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Saradha chit fund scam.
Labelling Mamata as the scam's "biggest beneficiary", Suvendu expressed concern over the CBI's "slow-paced" investigation and questioned the central agency's "incomprehensible scepticism and hesitation" in getting the TMC supremo convicted.
Adhikari, in the letter, alleged, "The CBI was handed over the responsibility of the investigation because it was a scam which involved thousands of crores collected from the public allegedly because of the patronage of people occupying high positions in the system."
"The CBI was expected to nail the person occupying the highest position in the system," he wrote.
Referring to Mamata’s ‘position in the system, he wrote, "Is this why the CBI is hesitant? Or has the height of her chair made them reluctant to act against her? But wasn't it the primary reason for handing over the investigation to the CBI? So that the position of the high & mighty doesn't deter them from acting against them and bringing them to justice."
Adhikari also alleged that Banerjee's association with Saradha goes back to the time when she was the railway minister in the UPA-2 government.
When the ruling Trinamool Congress alleged on several occasions that the CBI and other central agencies are working at the behest of the BJP, Adhikari expressed his unhappiness with the probe's progress several times in the letter.
Claiming that Mamata’s link to the scam is "well established," Adhikari wrote, "Why is CBI going slow regarding Mamata Banerjee and making no progress as such? The lack of action is resulting in the erosion of the faith of the people of West Bengal in the premier investigating agency."
Concluding his plea, he wrote, "I hope you (Modi) would consider this plea of the people of West Bengal and see to it that the culprits are punished strictly as per the law of the land."