At a time when All India Trinamool Congress’s confidence, is at its lowest in the wake of multiple scams, a news agency report enlivened the members of the ruling party in Bengal. The report said that the Central Bureau of Investigation investigating the billion dollar Saradha chit fund scam, has told the Ministry of External Affairs that there is no indication of Saradha Group’s investment funds being diverted to terror groups based in Bangladesh.
The response was given after the MEA sought a clarification from the CBI seeking details of the probe into the scam after reports of the scam money being allegedly pumped into Bangladesh for terror activities surfaced in the media, the agency further said. Quoting its sources, the news agency report claimed that CBI is “not aware of international terror linkages.”
“No such indication (diversion of Saradha funds to terror groups) has surfaced in our probe so far. We have not looked into that aspect. We will inform the MEA about it,” said an official to PTI.
However, quoting the sources, the report also added that the CBI got to know of the money trail on the basis of which action is being taken by the probe agency but complete details of investments and fund transfers are still being looked into.
The CBI sources further said the probe has met a stumbling block because the account books of the group have been ‘purposefully’ removed from the offices of Saradha Group taking excuse of the mob attack on its offices after news of the scam broke out, the agency said.
Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Hasan Imran, who was under scanner for allegedly funnelling funds to terror networks in Bangladesh, said he is ‘happy’ with the CBI’s findings.
“Certain absurd allegations were published through a section of the media. It was said that I have sent Saradha’s money to Bangladesh. I am happy that the CBI has said that there is no basis for such irresponsible claims,” Mr Imran told The Hindu .
Asked to comment on the report of the CBI to MEA which does not have any mention of Mr Imran, BJP leader Siddhartha Nath Singh said that the ‘matter’ concerning this MP’s association with fund diversion has not been taken up for investigation yet.
