On a day when the residence of a former personal secretary of State’s Transport Minister was getting searched, Chief Minister West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, alleged that the investigating agencies were protecting “actual criminals” in the multi-crore Saradha ponzi scheme scam.
Ms. Banerjee took a clear dig at both the CPI(M) and the Congress to say that chit fund companies were encouraged to “start and continue” with the business by the opposition parties, when AITC was not in power.
“How do we know that such a scam is going on?” she asked and answered, “…only when we would be told about the scam. Finally, when we came to know about the scam, we arrested the kingpin and started the process of returning the money to investors from our pocket,” she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ms Banerjee was speaking at a public rally hosted to mark the anniversary of the student’s wing of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in Kolkata on Thursday.
She went on to say that the investigating agencies are “shielding” the criminals.
“The agencies are interrogating Aparna Sen (film personality) …because she just edited a magazine (funded by Saradha group). But then what is her fault?” Ms Banerjee said and concluded that it is “unjustified” to involve the journalists who were appointed as professionals in media houses owned by Saradha Group.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The channels are shutting down, the employees are starving…while the actual criminals are shielded. Moreover, all kinds of lies are spread for political mileage. I would request (CBI) to investigate properly…we will cooperate,” she said.
Highlighting that many parties are “winning elections by spending thousands of crores” Ms Banerjee urged for electoral reforms to check unaccounted flow of money in Indian elections.
For the first time in recent months Ms Banerjee criticized the investigation conducted by central agencies directly accusing them for protecting the accused.