I was only a trustworthy employee of Sen, says Debjani

Kolkata: Chit fund aided Saradha Group promoter Sudipta Sen's close aide Debjani Mukherjee on Friday claimed she was only a "trustworthy employee" of Sen and that she was sacked for raising her voice against the company's fund collection method. "When I found out that my boss was doing business in a way that was against my principles, I started raising my voice against him. Not considering my dedication towards the company, he sacked me from the post of a director," she said.

The statement released to the media by her counsel Anirban Guha Thakurta said Mukherjee had joined the group's tours and travels sector in January 2008 as a joint executive at Guwahati. Following the formation of a new company under Saradha Group called Saradha Realty India Ltd in July 2008, Mukherjee was promoted to the director's post in the new venture to "see the administrative part".

"I had been assigned to work as an administrator. Fund accumulation was never a part of my job. I was only an employee of the company and resigned from the directorship one year ago. I worked for the company and got a salary," she said. Her counsel said that she had been made director of 40 companies and sacked from 35 of them, leaving her in-charge of five media groups.

"I have been the director of five media companies till date, as without proper scrutiny it is impossible to be a director of a media house, and if one has to replace me one, should go through the same process which requires lot of procedural complications," Mukherjee said.

Denying allegations that she was physically involved with Sen, Mukherjee stressed she "never tried to override or cross my limits". "I never had any relation with Mr Sudipta Sen other than being a sincere and trustworthy employee and I never tried to override or cross my limits. Nor did I have any intention to do so. I had never shared any room with Sudipta Sen. People are now gossiping against my chastity," she said.

She added, "My only sin is, what I understood is that I could not leave the captain of a drowning ship." Mukherjee was nabbed from Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir on April 23 along with Sen and another company official after the group went bust. "My only fault was that I could not leave my boss like them (other employees) midway, and though I was not paid my salary from nearly the end of 2012, I tried to help him (Sen) or at least stand beside him," she said.

Mukherjee said she "tried to return twice to Kolkata after meeting him (in Delhi in April), I could not succeed". She declined having Rs 30 crore in her bank account.

Sen, the suspected mastermind of the biggest financial scam to rock West Bengal, was arrested after the group's offices downed shutters. The group was unable to repay lakhs of depositors - mostly from rural areas and small towns - who had parked their hard-earned money, lured by the huge interest rates promised by the company.

The collapse of the group has already resulted in several agents, depositors of Saradha and similar chit fund companies committing suicide, while there are allegations of a small ponzi firm owner being murdered.