PremiumSenior Trinamool Congress leaders Partha Chatterjee and Madan Mitra have been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) respectively in connection with separate ponzi scam cases.
TMC secretary-general and state minister Partha Chatterjee was seen attending several public functions arranged by the now-defunct I-core chit fund company that has duped several investors by offering them abnormally high returns on investments. He has been asked to appear at the agency's CGO Complex office by next week.
Chatterjee said that he has not received any such communication from the CBI so far. "If I am called, I will definitely go. I can be present at any public meeting by virtue of being a minister. Please remember that I left a highly lucrative job to join politics and I have no greed for money," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, the ED has summoned Mitra, former TMC Rajya Sabha members businessman Swapan Sadhan Bose and journalist Ahmed Hassan Imran - in connection with the multi-crore Saradha scam. The ED has asked Imran, Bose and Mitra to depose before its officials on March 17, 18 and 19 respectively, sources said. Mitra was earlier arrested by the CBI in a Saradha scam case and was in jail for 21 months. He was released on bail in September 2016.
Like Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund companies, I- core raised money from the public by several fraudulent schemes floated by it. The CBI had taken over the investigation of Saradha and other ponzi scam cases on the orders of the Supreme Court on May 9, 2014.
(With inputs from agencies)
