Saradha con: Big fish feel the heat
KOLKATA: Back-to-back arrests by CBI last week of two powerful players with heavy-duty political backing in the almost Rs 3,500-crore Saradha scandal have rattled many politicians. With these arrests, investigators may be a step closer to untangling the web of transactions through which nearly 1.7 million investors were defrauded by a nexus of businessmen, politicians, policemen, journalists and sports personalities.
CBI became the fourth agency three months ago to join the probe with Enforcement Directorate (ED), I-T department and the Serious Frauds Investigation Office under Supreme Court instructions.
Worryingly, with every expose Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress has been inching closer to the scandal.One party minister and two MPs have been questioned; an RS MP is in custody . Other leaders may be summoned for interrogation.
ARRESTING POWERS
CBI's recent arrests of East Bengal Club's official Debabrata Sarkar and Kamla Tea and Orion IT Park owner Sajjan Agarwal's son Sandhir could mean more names tumbling out. Sarkar, aka Nitu, has powerful connections. Sandhir claims he's close to a "super VIP politician" in Delhi who he calls "uncle". The Agarwals and Sarkar are accused of misappropriating Rs 40 crore of Saradha money parked with a "top industrialist" in Mumbai.
CBI insists this is the tip of the iceberg. About 100 agency officers are working in 31 locations across Delhi, Kolkata, Odisha and Guwa hati, searching premises of people Sudipta named in his purported 18-page letter to CBI. Kunal Ghosh, who was also Saradha Media CEO when he was booked, too wrote to CBI making damaging claims.
PROBE LIGHTS
Among those Sudipta and Kunal apparently named in their letters were former Union minister Matang Singh, his estranged wife, Manoranjana, former Bengal DGP and now TMC "observer" Rajat Majumdar, media owner Ramesh Gandhi, Saradha staffers and former SEBI and Registrar of Companies officials. At least four MPs and an equal number of MLAs, including two powerful ministers, are under CBI scanner. The agency is probing two top former SEBI officials and an industrialist-turned-MP also mired in the coal scam.
CBI officers have searched Matang Singh's Delhi premises for documents on Sudipta's purchase of Northeast TV shares. The jailed Saradha boss claimed he paid Rs 25 crore to Manoranjana's company, GNN Pvt Ltd, and Rs 3 crore to her father, K N Gupta.
In Kolkata, investigators searched former D-G Rajat Majumdar's house and questioned him about the work he did for Saradha, particularly his role in the company-sponsored Banga Sammelan organized under the aegis of the North Atlantic Bengali Conference from July 6-8, 2012 at Las Vegas.
ED questioned Mithun Chakraborty and Aparna Sen -Mithun for his role as Saradha brand ambassador and Aparna as editor and CEO of Saradha group magazine Parama, launched in 2011 by CM Mamata Banerjee. After the six-hour questioning, Aparna said: "I was an employee and edited a magazine. I've submitted documents I had. Investigators will get all support."
Sudipta apparently told ED he invested around Rs 2 crore in the magazine.
Bengal textile minister and Bishnupur MLA, Shyamapada Mukherjee's name surfaced after investigators scrutinized Saradha's deal with a company called Landmark Cement. Sudipta acquired this firm in 2010 from Mukherjee despite its zero income. In 2005-06, Landmark registered a Rs 45,000 loss which shot up to Rs 8 lakh the next year. Despite that, a Kolkata nationalized bank gave it a loan before Saradha bought it.
"Sudipta claimed he paid Rs 10 crore for Landmark, retaining Shyamapada's wife on the board with a salary," an ED official said.Mukherjee claimed he got Rs 2.8 crore for the factory insisting "everything was transparent".
THE GIFT TRAIL
ED and CBI have also scrutinized `gifts' to Trinamool heavyweights: MPs and MLAs. Sudipta, sources said, bought a Ferrari on the insistence of a party leader in 2012 using his group outfit Saradha Tours and Travels to place an order for the dodgy import. Sleuths have reasons to believe that a woman -a British passport-holder -was sent money through hawala for the car. She transferred the sum to an agent in Germany and was paid around Rs 1.8 crore, sources said.
CBI identified three flats Sudipta says he `gifted' a senior TMC leader, one in Mumbai, two in Kolkata.Investigators have traced 60 acres of farmland Sudipta bought in Odisha. To probe this, they're set to call his Odisha operations in-charge: A 30-something Saradha Realty director.Like Debjani Mukherjee, Sudipta's No. 2 also in custody, this woman's rise too was dramatic. She joined as a trainee in 2006.
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