Kolkata: It took some 15 alprazolam tablets and a summons to create the latest dust up in the Saradha ponzi scam case.
That those 15-odd anti-anxiety sedatives which suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh popped inside a high-security prison in Kolkata on the wee hours of 14th November added to the embarrassment of the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal is an understatement.
The state's ruling political establishment which is already embattled in this case was irked when Ghosh threatened to commit suicide in an open court in Kolkata barely 72 hours ago on grounds that even the CBI is trying to shield the real culprits and is targeting only the smaller fries.
The ignominy the state suffered was complete when he actually went ahead with the deed to prove that he wasn't making empty threats.
Why wonder then that the police would manhandle the media when it got close to a talkative Ghosh at the hospital and even managed to extract a sound bite where he reiterated his stand in no uncertain terms? He may be one of the prime accused in the case, but Ghosh is a former journalist and he knows how to hog headlines.
That said, it seemed a little more than just a coincidence that barely hours after Ghosh was released from hospital and sent back to jail the CBI sent interrogation summons to the biggest name in the case so far... Bengal transport minister and one of Mamata Banerjee's most trusted lieutenants, Madan Mitra.
Ghosh has been crying hoarse over Mitra's alleged involvement in the scam and wasn't been paid heed to until, of course, his suicide bid. But Mitra - who has been recently spotted everywhere, from galleries of ISL matches to the audience seats of reality shows of private TV channels - has not been keeping too well ever since CBI took up investigations upon directions of the Supreme Court and has been in and out of hospitals. No prizes for guessing that the minister was in hospital, reportedly undergoing treatment for a spinal cord ailment, when the summons was issued. He has even changed venues from a private hospital to a government one where he commands greater authority a day before he was summoned, presumably because he is better shielded there. All eyes are now focussed on the 21 November deadline which the minister is likely miss on grounds of his medical condition. What then? Will the CBI land up at Mitra's hospital door? We will keep a close eye on that.
Mitra won the Bishnupur Assembly seat of South 24 Parganas district in the 2009 by polls. He represented the constituency perched in the southern fringes of Kolkata till 2011. The Saradha Group, incidentally, started its operations from Bishnupur and, during Mitra's time, was in full flourish. Mitra lectured at the group's investors' meet and ushered heaps of praises on the "good work the company was doing". He was, allegedly, also the president of the group's employees' association. His pictures with the discredited chairman of the Group, Sudipta Sen, was once seen proudly hung at the Saradha offices before they were quickly removed after the company collapsed in April, 2013.
That the CBI took six months to call Mitra for questioning even though there was, right from the start, overwhelming evidence of his connections with the fraudulent company, can be seen both ways: one could assume that the decision to formally rope in the big names of the state's ruling political establishment has to be political rather than based on investigation results... hence, a formal go-ahead from the Centre depending on the latest political relationship of the BJP and the Trinamool Congress would be necessary. While that may or may nor have been the case, the other way of looking at it is surely that the Bureau was taking time to collect evidences acceptable in court and make the case about the likes of Mitra watertight. It bears recall that Mitra's former confidential assistant Bapi Karim has already been grilled by the agency and it may have come in possession of incriminating agency against Mitra. Either way, it's bad news for Mitra and for team Mamata Banerjee.
But Mitra isn't the only one who has been summoned in the latest round. Trinamool MP Srinjoy Bose, who has already been questioned repeatedly by both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate earlier, has also been asked to reappear before the agency. Ghosh has been named by his former colleague in Parliament, Kunal Ghosh, as an alleged partner in crime. Even Sudipta Sen's purported tell all letter to the CBI charges him with extorting big money from Saradha. Bose, who owns the Bengali daily Samvad Pratidin, had forged a deal with the Saradha-owned TV channel Channel 10, and Ghosh was running the show for his newspaper before he went on to become the group CEO of Saradha's media wing. Although the primary business interest of Srinjoy Bose's family remains in shipping, he also runs the show at Mohun Bagan and Bhowanipore clubs whose accounts have been seized, besides the other Maidan biggie East Bengal, by the ED for using Saradha funds.
How the investigators choose to act with Bose and what status is he awarded, whether of a suspect or of a witness, are, hence, also matters of great interest to journalists like us.
The day would also witness another first timer at CBI office... Congress leader Somen Mitra. Mitra was very much in the Trinamool Congress fold during the time the scam broke before the disgruntled leader crossed over to his original cradle in January this year. Mitra's name has been reportedly spilled by one of the suspected beneficiaries in the scam, East Bengal official Debabrata Sarkar. Sarkar has reportedly confided in the agency that Mitra had influenced Saradha boss Sudipta Sen in sponsoring the East Bengal club... an allegation which the agency now needs to cross check and hence the summons.
The CBI has so far arrested four people in connection with the scam and submitted two charge sheets before the court. That list excludes the Saradha chairman Sudipta Sen, his associate Debjani Mukherjee and Kunal Ghosh who were arrested by a special investigation team of the state police before the CBI arrived at the scene.
Besides Sarkar, the CBI netted Rajat Majumder, a former IPS officer who retired as the DG of the state armed police. Majumdar's proximity to the Trinamool Congress is well known and he served as the party's observer in Birbhum during the 2013 Panchayat polls. Despite Majumdar's claim that he merely worked as a security consultant for the Saradha group, the company brochures calls him the group's president. CBI officers confirmed that Majumder was arrested on charges of "misappropriation of funds, conspiracy and cheating". Businessman Sandhir Agarwal and Assamese crooner Sadanand Gogoi are the other two whose roles in the scam are beyond doubts in the minds of the investigators.
The two charge sheets pertaining to cases on Saradha's media and realty businesses which the CBI has filed names all seven and adds another name... Sandhir's father, Sajjan Agarwal, who is yet to be arrested. The agency may be looking forward to a court order before taking the final plunge on this highly influential businessman.
But eyeballs remain fixed on the supplementary charge sheets which the agency is likely to file in some of the Saradha cases where some of the big fishes of the state's political fraternity are supposed to be named. It doesn't require the brains of a rocket scientist to figure out which political party of the state is most worried.
Two more important personalities, again within the ruling party fold, have been making rounds at the CBI office in Salt Lake since their depositions about involvement with the Saradha Group failed to satisfy the sleuths. The first, of course, is artist Suvaprasanna whose non-starter TV channel was bought over by the Saradha Group allegedly at a premium price. The Enforcement Directorate has also quizzed Suvaprasanna on whether Saradha money was used in Arts Acre, his prized modern art gallery-cum-museum-cum-studio cluster-cum a lot many other things in Rajarhat in the eastern fringes of Kolkata. Also under the scanner of the investigating agencies is state textile minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (or is it Shyamapada Mukherjee!) who allegedly too dug his fingers into the Saradha pie by selling a cement factory he owned to Sudipta Sen at exorbitant money. While both have vehemently denied foul play, the investigators are far from having seen them through. Or so it seems.
Let's not forget amid this web of developments that the Justice Shyamal Sen Commission which was set up by the Mamata Banerjee government to identify the key people behind the scam and return money to the cheated depositors wound up in October this year without completely fulfilling either of the objectives. The commission received some 17 lakh applications for return of money from Saradha and non-Saradha depositors and agents and was able to pay back less then 25 per cent of those applicants. Of the 287 crore rupee fund from the state coffers which the commission used for pay back, 102 crores remained unutilized. As for identifying the culprits, the Commission hardly took a step in that direction.
Put all of this in the backdrop and there will be little surprise about why Trinamool Supremo Mamata Banerjee is so touchy about the Saradha probe. Have this big picture in front and you'll know why the Bengal chief minister threatens to walk out of TV interviews when asked about the scam. Think of the can of worms that the probe has already opened and then ask whether Banerjee's claim to quit politics if her party's involvement is proved in the scam is a mere political posturing.
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