The Enforcement Directorate served a summons on Shankudeb Panda, Trinamool State committee general secretary, on Tuesday in connection the Saradha scam. Officials visited the party headquarters, but since Mr. Panda was not present, the summons was faxed to him. This is the first time that an investigating agency is landing at the doorsteps of the party.
The ED froze certain bank accounts linked to Saradha and sealed properties in Mumbai and Rajarhat owned by the some of the accused.
The summons is in connection with a money trail, officials said indicating that the registered office of a firm being investigated bore the party’s office address. Mr. Panda’s links with the firm were detected from certain documents.
“We have asked him to appear for questioning within 10 days,” an official said.
“This is a political conspiracy to defame the party” said Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee. “The ED cannot go to the party office. If required they should go to his (Mr Panda) residence,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
Mr. Panda, a former television journalist, was the face of Trinamool’s student wing until October, when he was stripped of his post by party supremo Mamata Banerjee, for what is believed to be his role in militant student activism by the wing.
The summons comes as a major embarrassment to the Trinamool, which is grappling with the arrest of Minister Madan Mitra and Srinjoy Bose, MP, by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The Opposition seized it as an opportunity to target the Trinamool, and said the investigation, which had reached the doors of the ruling party, would soon reach the Chief Minister’s residence.
ED sources said it had frozen a bank account of the former Congress MP Matang Sinh. Transactions with respect to his Versova property in Mumbai have been blocked.