Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday alleged that a lobby of chit fund companies hatched a conspiracy to remove him from office. He said this lobby had been trying to remove him from his position as he had been initiating action against swindling of public money by the lobby. He was responding to journalists’ queries on the sidelines of the 14th annual conference of the North East Region Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at the Assam Legislative Assembly premises here.
“This lobby is still trying to remove me because if they succeed then they would have been able to make business of thousands of crores of rupees,” he added. Asked if any minister was involved in the conspiracy, Mr. Gogoi said while he would not name any ministers, such lobbies always rope in a few people. He added that only he dared to take a tough stand against swindling of public money by chit fund companies and recommend the probe into the chit fund scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
He later left for New Delhi for discussing plans for the 2013-14 financial year.
The State Government has recommended to the CBI 15 cases of swindling of public money by 12 chit fund companies, including the Saradha Group. A CBI team has already gathered facts pertaining to the scam from the Criminal Investigation Department and the Bureau of Investigations of Economic Offence, Assam. The CBI is expected to take a decision on the recommendations of the cases by the State government after examining them, said State Home Secretary G.D. Tripathi.
