April 26, 2024 02:19 (IST)
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Saradha scam: Court extends Madan Mitra's jail custody
Kolkata, Jan 2 (IBNS): Accepting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s appeal and rejecting his bail plea, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) of Alipore Court Haradhan Mukherjee on Friday sent Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and West Bengal sports and transport minister Madan Mitra to judicial custody for another 14 days.
After 14 days of jail custody, Mitra was produced in the Alipore court on Friday.
Lawyer of Sudipta Sen, Naresh Valodia, was also sent to a 14-day further judicial custody by the court.
The lawyers of Madan Mitra and Naresh Valodia pleaded for their clients' bail.
Opposing their bail pleas, CBI lawyer Partha Sarathi Dutta complained to the judge that Mitra had taken a huge amount of money from Saradha group and he had invested that money in several places.
"If Madan Mitra gets bail, he may influence the evidences. So, we are demanding a judicial custody of 14 days," Partha Sarathi added.
Then Mitra told judge, "If it is proved that I took a rupee from Saradha, I will accept death-sentence."
After listening to both sides, the judge rejected the bail pleas and sent Mitra as well as Valodia to judicial custody for another 14 days.
He will be produced in the court again on Jan 16.
A few Madan's followers were present in front of Alipore court on Friday. They shouted slogan when Mitra was being produced in the court.
Heavy security arrangements were made outside the court area to control any untoward situation. They also threw flowers on Mitra as he came out of the car.
When Mitra was coming out from the courtroom, he shouted "Bande Mataram" and "Mamata Banerjee Zindabad" slogans.
After a marathon 5 hours of questioning, the CBI arrested Madan Mitra on Dec 12 in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam.
The Saradha Group, that went bust last year, left lakhs of depositors in a fix.
Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen and Saradha Group director Debjani Mukherjee were arrested in April 2013 from Jammu and Kashmir.
Several other TMC leaders, parliamentarians, were earlier taken in custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI had earlier arrested industrialist Srinjoy Bose in the scam.
Bose is the owner-editor of Bengali daily newspaper 'Sambad Protidin' and executive member of 'Mohun Bagan' football club. He is also the editor of Trinamool Congress (TMC) mouthpiece 'Jaago Bangla.'
Suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh and party vice president Rajat Majumdar were arrested earlier.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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