Kolkata: Srinjoy Bose, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament and editor-in-chief of the Bengali daily, Pratidin, was arrested on Friday by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) in connection with the multimillion rupees Saradha chit fund scam.
Bose is the second parliamentarian and third TMC leader to be arrested in the chit fund scam in which thousands of people in West Bengal lost their savings.
Suspended TMC MP Kunal Ghosh and party vice president Rajat Majumdar were arrested earlier. This brings the number of people arrested in the case to seven.
“CBI has arrested Mr. Srinjoy Bose for his prima facie involvement in the cases,” a senior CBI official told Gulf News.
Bose was arrested after hours of questioning by the CBI, which is investigating the case in West Bengal and Odisha. According to the sources, Bose was arrested as he failed to give details of the contract his media company had entered into with the Saradha media group, in which the prime accused Saradha chief Sudipto Sen paid an annual fee of Rs6 million (Dh356,765).
In the letter written to the CBI in April 2013, Sen has alleged that Bose “pressurised and extorted” money from him. Before his arrest Bose was questioned thrice by Enforcement Directorate and once by the CBI.
CBI officials inform that Bose has been charged with blackmailing and threatening Sen for which he was forced to pay the amount. “Bose had repeatedly changed his version of the story and even after six hours, he failed to give a satisfactory answer as to what was the reason for the contact to be so inflated and its exact details,” said an investigating officer, who is willing to grill Bose through the night.
Bose’s arrest is a major setback for chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had always claimed her party leadership’s innocence in the chit fund scam.
CBI on Friday, also questioned a state minister, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. Another minister, Madan Mitra, skipped his questioning saying he was in hospital. Mitra spent four days at a private nursing home and on Thursday, switched to a government hospital.
