Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has alleged that “actual criminals” are being protected by investigating agencies in the multi-crore Saradha ponzi scam, while innocent actors and journalists are being harassed.
This comment was made in context of searches conducted on Thursday at the residences of former personal secretary of State Transport Minister Madan Mitra, a newspaper owner close to Trinamool leaders, businessmen and retired government officials.
Ms. Banerjee was speaking at a rally hosted to mark the anniversary of the student’s wing of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in Kolkata on Thursday.
She took a dig at both the CPI (M) and the Congress saying that chit fund companies were encouraged to “start and continue” with business by opposition parties when the AITC was not in power. For the first time in recent months, Ms. Banerjee criticised the investigation conducted by central agencies, directly accusing them of protecting the accused.
She argued that while the chit funds flourished during CPI (M)’s time, the Congress kept silent. “How do we know that such a scam is going on?” she asked and answered, “…only when we would be told about the scam and finally when we came to know about the scam, we arrested the kingpin, started the process of returning the money to investors from our pocket,” she said. “We (AITC) do not need money of the chit fund companies for our daily meal. We work hard for our livelihood,” she said, virtually giving a clean chit to her colleagues. Simultaneously, she questioned the role of investigating agencies like the CBI.
“The agencies are interrogating Aparna Sen (film personality) as she edited a magazine (funded by Saradha group). But what is her fault?” Ms Banerjee asked and concluded that it was “unjustified” to involve journalists who were appointed as professionals in media houses owned by the Saradha Group.
“The channels are shutting down, boys and girls are losing jobs and they are starving, while the actual criminals are shielded. Moreover, all kinds of lies are being spread for political mileage. I would request (agencies) to investigate properly…we will cooperate,” she said. Highlighting that many parties are “winning elections by spending thousands of crores”, Ms. Banerjee made an appeal for electoral reforms to check unaccounted flow of money in Indian elections.
Youth leaders cautioned The student brigade of AITC was cautioned by party chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday. “Our primary duty is to pay respect to teachers, employees and non-teaching staff of the schools and colleges,” she said. This comes in the wake of several reported incidents of violence in school and college premises committed by the student’s wing of the party. At least, a dozen cases of assaulting students, teachers and non-teaching staff were reported since January, 2012. On many occasions, the property of schools and colleges were damaged.
On Wednesday, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee urged teachers and Vice-Chancellors “not to bend under pressure” from the student brigade.
