Kolkata: Arrested Trinamool leader and West Bengal minister Madan Mitra caused the CPM major embarrassment when he claimed on Friday he had spelt out the names of three leaders from the Opposition party, including a sitting Lok Sabha MP, to the CBI for their alleged involvement in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
Mr Mitra who has been remanded in judicial custody till January 2, made these comments while being taken from the CGO Complex in Salt Lake for production at Alipore Court.
Asked to spell out the names, he told the media, “The CPM leaders are Rabin Deb, Mohammed Salim and Sujan Chakraborty.” He wondered why the CBI was not arresting them.
While Mr Deb, a former CPM MLA and party state secretariat member, was summoned and questioned by the CBI on September 19, Mohammed Salim, Lok Sabha MP and a CPM central committee member, and Sujan Chakraborty, ex-Lok Sabha MP and the party’s South 24 Parganas district secretary, have not received any summons.
Reacting sharply to Mr Mitra’s charge, CPM satraps said that the minister was trying to mislead the CBI. “With the progress in the investigation it is getting increasingly evident how deeply CM Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy were involved in the scam. We have learnt that Mr Mitra has already named them in his statement to the CBI,” Mr Salim said.
He said the CPM wanted the CBI to take the ongoing probe to its logical conclusion so that the Trinamul Congress was further exposed as a “party of liars”.
Meanwhile, Mr Mitra was admitted to the state-run SSKM Hospital after he was remanded to judicial custody by a city court. He was brought to the hospital from Alipore Central Jail after he complained of chest pain and respiratory distress. The minister was arrested on December 12 by the CBI.
