SC Dismisses Petition Seeking Court monitored Probe In Saradha Scam
INDIA’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition moved by investors seeking a court-monitored investigation into the Saradha chit fund scam. Their plea was that that the case has not reached finality despite being probed by the CBI for the last six years. A two –judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that it was not inclined to set up a monitoring committee, News18 reported. The court had clarified at the outset that it wanted the Central Bureau of Investigation to monitor the probe and send regular updates on the progress. Meanwhile, in Shillong, Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and former TMC MP Kunal Ghosh were questioned at the CBI office about the Saradha chit fund scam defrauding an estimated 17 lakh gullible investors as per the Supreme Court’s directive .Kumar had headed the SIT formed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the Home Portfolio, to probe the scam before the case was transferred to CBI by the Supreme Court. Ghosh, 50, was media advisor to the Ponzi firm and editor of two Bangla dailies, stated to be the ruling TMC’s mouthpieces. He was reportedly paid a salary of 17 lakh per month. Some journalist report from the Meghalaya‘s capital that Ghosh, a former TMC MP, remains nonchalant and moving around as a tourist. He has reportedly handed over a 12-page letter penned by Sudipto Sen, founder- CMD of the Saradha Group. Kumar was also grilled about Rose Valley involved in another massive scam. Its chief Gautam Kundu is in jail like Sen and his number two Debjani Mukherjee , executive director. The Kolkata Police chief was quizzed by three senior CBI officers about his alleged role in tampering of crucial evidence in the case, officials said.The Hindu reported “We are not authorised to disclose what the IPS officer [Mr. Kumar] said. He was quizzed individually, first in connection with the Saradha case and then with the Rose Valley case before the accused [Mr. Ghosh] joined him in the evening,” a mid-rank CBI officer said on condition of anonymity.. Ghosh, whose separate interrogation took place in tandem with that of Kumar, told reporters “The CBI is interrogating the very police officer who grilled me. This is my moral victory.”The INR 17,520 crore Rose Valley scam , which also rocked West Bengal in 2013, was a bigger financial fraud than Saradha scam estimated at INR 2,460 crore. Meanwhile, Kunal Ghosh, who has been bailed out after remaining imprisoned for three years, was also summoned by the CBI. He had sought blessings of goddess Saraswati at a pandal, barely 100 meters from the CBI office, before entering the highly secured office of the investigating agency at Oakland.”I have no comments (to make). I have been asked to attend a hearing at this office. All along I have been cooperating with the investigating agency. So I came to attend it,” he told media persons before entering the CBI office. Kunal Ghosh was arrested in 2013 in the Saradha Ponzi scam and has been out on bail since 2016. Ghosh had earlier implicated BJP leader Mukul Roy, who was once the right hand man of Banerjee, and 12 others in the Saradha scam. Mukul Roy, then TMC’ most powerful General Secretary and MP,was also summoned and grilled by CBI.Since his appearance before CBI ,the amicable relations between him and TMC supremo deteriorated and he was compelled to quit the party.SC has chosen Shillong as the neutral place for questing the Kolkata top cop “to avoid all unnecessary controversy” and made it clear that Kumar would not be arrested. The CBI had moved the Supreme Court after its officials were thwarted by Kolkata Police when they had gone to Kumar’s official residence in Kolkata to question him on February 3.Banerjee had rushed to the spot and had staged a three-day ‘Save the Constitution’ sit-in against the CBI move and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah of plotting a ‘coup’.