Saradha scam: CBI arrests Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose

According to reports, Bose was arrested after marathon six hours of questioning by the CBI.

The agency is investigating the case in West Bengal and Odisha.

Bose, who owns the popular Bengali daily ‘ Sambad Pratidin’, once employed the suspended TMC Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh as editor of the newspaper.

It has been learnt that The Rajya Sabha member was allegedly blackmailed jailed Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen to extort money from him.

CBI sources said that Bose used to draw a whooping sum of 60 lakhs per month from Sen to run his newspaper firm.

In the letter written to the CBI in April 2013, Saradha chief Sudipta Sen has alleged that Bose “pressurized and extorted” money from him.

Srinjoy also heads Kolkata’s century-old iconic Mohun Bagan Athletic Club.

The club’s foremost rival East Bengal Club's official Debabrata Biswas has been in jail since July after being arrested by CBI in relation to Saradha ponzi scam.

Bose is the second MP and third Trinamool Congress leader to be arrested in the multi-crore chit fund scam in which lakhs of people in West Bengal lost their savings.

This brings the number of people arrested in the case to seven.

Suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh and party vice president Rajat Majumdar were arrested earlier.

Majumdar is said to have close links to Saradha Group CMD Sudipta Sen, who is currently in jail.

Majumdar, who had worked as Director General (Armed Police) in West Bengal, was believed to be associated with the Saradha Group, which is caught in the chit fund scam worth crores of rupees belonging to the investors.

CBI arrested Assamese filmmaker and singer Sadananda Gogoi in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

Also languishing in jail in this connection is city-based businessman Sandhir Agarwal.

This was in fact the second time that Bose has been interrogated by federal agency's sleuths. He was earlier called by CBI in September.

Bose was also questioned thrice by Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Apart from Bose, CBI on Friday quizzed West Bengal state textile minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

"I was called to submit papers, they asked me some questions. I answered properly," Mukherjee said to reporters while leaving CBI office after being grilled.

Asked whether he was concerned about the embarrassment to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he said, "Asked Mamata Banerjee."

Another minister, Madan Mitra, skipped his questioning saying he was in hospital.

Mitra spent four days at a private nursing home and on Thursday, switched to a government hospital.

Earlier in the day when he appeared before the CBI, Bose said that he was called as a witness and will extend all cooperation in the case.

“I have done nothing wrong so why should I be worried,” he told the journalists while entering the CBI office.

Srinjoy's arrest came barely days after Kunal Ghosh allegedly overdosed on sleeping pills in jail, in what the police said was a suicide attempt last week.

Ghosh had threatened in court that he would take his own life if the "real beneficiaries" of the chit fund scam were not arrested.

He has alleged that top leaders of his party are being shielded.

He has earlier accused the West Bengal Chief Minister of having benefitted the most from the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

He also challenged the party to form an internal probe panel over the  multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

CBI on Monday filed the second chargesheet in the  multi-crore Saradha scam which had hit West Bengal in 2013.

The agency has named seven people and four private firms in the chargesheet.

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.

He was absconding since Saradha Group collapsed.

The duo is now in jail in the ponzi scam.

Sen had claimed that he was blackmailed and used by politicians mainly from Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

Meanwhile, opposition has stepped up the heat on Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee over the ponzi scheme meltdown scam that affected poor people statewide.