Bengal minister 'sold' government land to Sarada

Bengal minister 'sold' Sudipta government land

TNN | Sep 3, 2014, 11.30 PM IST

KOLKATA: State textiles minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee is in deep trouble. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has got papers showing that the minister sold off government land along with the cement factory to Saradha group.

Investigators suspect the minister grabbed 7 acres of land lying with the state forest department while setting up his cement factory. Later he sold the factory, which was set up on 15 acres, of which 7 acres did not belong to him.

ED officials have recovered land documents of the disputed 7 acres that belonged to the state forest department and other government agencies. The mismatch between Saradha boss Sudipta Sen's statement to the ED and that of the state minister over Saradha's acquisition of Landmark Cement Company site in Dhabani village in Bankura's Beliatore prompted investigators to look into the land acquisition details.

The disputed land comes under Barjora mouza. "We found that under JL-128, part numbers 493, 494, 495, 496, 497, 500 and 501 were not owned by the minister," a source said. Since the buyout was made during the Left Front regime, there are chances a few officers and local politicians of the Barjora
area might be summoned, ED sources said.

Mukherjee owned the factory before Sen bought it in 2009 at a reportedly exorbitant cost. The deal is already under the scanner of the ED, which has questioned Sen and Mukherjee. Taking leads from the interrogation, a two-member ED team led by assistant director Manoj Kumar and officer N K Mosa also paid a visit to the factory site.

Mukherjee had bought a land parcel from Sanjib Banerjee of Beliatore to set up the cement factory. But the factory was sick since inception and never revived. Ashis Banerjee, a staffer of the factory, said around 20 people were working in the factory when it shut down. "We used to get Rs 2,000 as salary when Mukherjee was the owner of the factory. After Saradha took over, our salary was raised to Rs 3,000," he added.

Sen has already denied the deal amount that was mentioned by the minister for the Saradha Landmark Cement factory purchase. Mukherjee told ED that he had sold the factory for around Rs 2.81 crore to the Saradha head. "I can't tell the exact amount we had paid to Shyamaprasad-babu right now. But I'm sure we paid him more than he has mentioned," Sen had told reporters. He told ED officials that he had bought the Landmark Cement factory for Rs 10 crore.

Also See : TMC leader helped plan Sudipta escape: CBI