In a letter to Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP, Kunal Ghosh, whose name has been linked to the Saradha group’s chit fund scam has said he is ready to face any probe.
The letter, explaining his ties with the company, was sent on Friday, informed sources said.
Meanwhile, a complaint was filed against him, among others, by a section of employees of a television channel owned by the Saradha group for non-payment of salaries.
Mr. Ghosh was the group CEO of Saradha Publishing and Printing Pvt. Ltd. that owned the television channel, Channel 10. One of its vice presidents, Somnath Dutta who also had links with certain Trinamool Congress leaders, was also mentioned in the complaint filed at the city’s Park Street police station.
The main charges mentioned in the complaint are non-payment of salaries, and non-submission of the company’s share in the employees’ Provident Fund.
Mr. Ghosh told journalists he was never associated with the channel’s “finance and accounts” and added, “I did not have the authority to sanction money or sign cheques.”
Asked to comment on whether Trinamool Congress leaders had any connection with the Saradha group, party secretary general and State’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said, “If found guilty of financial offences, they will be tried irrespective of party affiliation.”
In a letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation, chairman and managing director of the Saradha group Sudipta Sen accused Mr. Ghosh of trying to force him to sign documents stating he was willing to sell Channel 10 “for a meagre amount of Rs. 55 lakh.”
Mr. Sen has alleged that both Mr. Ghosh and another Trinamool Congress MP, Srinjoy Bose, took vast sums of money from him on various occasions and later forced him to transfer the ownership of various media organisations at throwaway prices.
“Forcing him [Mr. Sen] to sign is a total lie. Till today he is the owner of Channel 10,” said Mr. Ghosh.
The complaint against him by some of his colleagues is “motivated” and the result of “deep-seated enmity.”
