Suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh, who was questioned on Thursday for about seven hours by the Bidhannagar police probing the multi-crore Saradha Group scam, threatened to reveal the names of nine persons who had benefited from the scam-tainted company’s activities if its chairman and managing director Sudipta Sen refused to do so.
“I request Mr. Sudipta Sen [the CMD] to please recall the names of the nine persons whom you know so well who took a lot of advantages from Saradha. You please cooperate in the investigation and reveal the names in front of the police. Take your time and if you do not mention these names, I have to do so myself,” Mr. Ghosh said, while emerging from the office of the police commissionerate.
This is the fifth time Mr. Ghosh expressed dissent against his party’s leadership since September 20 and the second time over the past two days that he has been questioned.
Earlier, the Rajya Sabha MP had alleged that a senior party leader, who demanded his resignation, had demanded Rs. four crore from Mr. Sen. The journalist-turned-politician was suspended by the Trinamool Congress for anti-party activities on September 28.
Asked whether he was feeling harassed because of the repeated interrogations, he said that there was no question of harassment and the police was doing the “absolutely right” thing.
“As a responsible citizen, I am cooperating with the police,” he said.
Mr. Ghosh described the letter written by Mr. Sen to the Central Bureau of Investigation, accusing him of pressuring to give him money, as a “deep rooted conspiracy.”
Meanwhile, there was a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met senior government and police officials, including the commissioner of Bidhnanagar city police, Rajiv Kumar.
When asked by journalists on the frequent questioning of Mr. Ghosh, Mr. Kumar said that since he was the CEO of the media arm of the Saradha Group, he was privy to a lot of information that the police was trying to extract.
