Biman Basu: Why was Shyamal Sen Commission wound up?

Voicing a strong protest against the winding up of the Shyamal Sen Commission appointed by the State government, Left Front committee chairperson Biman Basu on Friday demanded an answer to why the commission was closed.

The Commission, headed by Justice (retired) Shyamal Sen, was set up to probe into the functioning of the scam-tainted Saradha group of companies and other similar Ponzi schemes. The commission was set up by the State government on 24 April 2013.

“The Left Front never asked for such a commission, neither did we object to it being constituted. We, however, strongly protest against the commission being shut down. The Commission was making good progress with repaying duped investors and finding out other Ponzi schemes, although many cheques to repay investors bounced. Was the AITC scared of this progress?”

Mr. Basu alleged that the AITC-led government was trying to protect its party members who were embroiled in fraudulent schemes.

‘Evidence tampered’ Pointing to conspiracies in the functioning of the commission, Mr. Basu said the Special Investigation Team had tampered with evidence and alleged that the commission’s secretary had deleted all information from the computer database before leaving the commission, while the joint secretary was away on a long sickness leave in Bangalore.

“Justice Sen has said that 5 lakh people were compensated in one and a half years [during the Commission’s tenure] and he was satisfied with it. He added that he had expected more financial help from the State government,” Mr. Basu said.

Stating that Justice Sen had sent a detailed report to the State government regarding its findings, Mr. Basu demanded that the report be made available to the public.