West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack on BJP and the Centre on Saturday over the arrest of state Transport Minister Madan Mitra by CBI in the Saradha scam.
Mamata said Trinamool Congress MPs will protest against it in parliament from Monday, reports Indian Express yesterday.
“CBI has lost all credentials. It has become His Master’s Voice. CBI has become a political tool. It is time to wind it up. TMC MPs will protest in parliament from Monday against BJP’s politics of vendetta.”
Mamata Banerjee was speaking at a TMC rally.
“Stay within your limits or face the music,” she warned the BJP and the Centre and added that people of Bengal will not tolerate insult. They are arrogant because they are in power, she said.
Reminiscent of her earlier practice, Mamata hit the road along with thousands of party workers, including ministers and several sports persons in a protest march against the arrest.
“I have not come here as chief minister but as a common citizen. I do not believe that Madan is a thief or dacoit. His family’s pecuniary condition is not such that he had to take this money (from the Saradha Group) to sustain his family.”
Apparently referring to photos of Madan Mitra sharing the dias with Saradha Group Chairman Sudipta Sen, who is now in judicial custody, at a function of its employees union of which he was stated to be the president, Banerjee said “If an image is a proof of criminal conspiracy, then the PM should be arrested for the Sahara scam.
“There are photos of several CPI-M leaders with chit fund owners. There are photos of the PM with the Sahara chief. Should we demand that CBI arrest PM Narendra Modi?” Mamata questioned.
Alleging that Madan Mitra, a key party organiser and also state sports minister, was called as the witness to the CBI office and was arrested hours after, she said it was done following a phone call from Delhi.
“His son, who met him after the arrest was told by Madan that CBI officials were just interacting with him and asking him as to which school and college he had studied in.”
At this stage a phone call came from Delhi following which he was arrested.
“Madan was called as a witness. If one after being called as a witness, gets arrested this way then no one will go to depose as the witness,” Mamata said.
Meanwhile, responding to her charges, the BJP in Delhi said Mamata is pressing the “panic button” and “rattled” by the possibility that her “own involvement” could come to light, reports the Hindustan Times.
“Dare does not matter. Sometimes I can say these are politically motivated attempts...If anything which is linking Mamata Banerjee with the scam, she would be investigated and interrogated by the CBI. It is for the CBI to take that call and not for me to direct the CBI,” BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi told reporters outside parliament
“And it will be determined on the fact of the case and investigating material, which is before the police. I am no one to direct CBI, nor is the BJP. CBI is an autonomous institution,” she added.
Lekhi said that if Mamata Banerjee has done anything wrong or committed any wrong in terms of conspiracy which has happened or if any link is found connecting her with Saradha scam “her dare will go away” because the law would then take its course.
Another party spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao attacked Banerjee, saying she has “lost all her courage” and was making “adventurous comments” without offering an explanation on the alleged role of her party leaders.
“She is possibly rattled by the revelations and possibly fears that her own involvement in the scam would come to light,” he said.
Opposition parties in West Bengal have repeatedly accused the chief minister of trying to shield some of the beneficiaries of the company’s slush funds.
Meanwhile, West Bengal minister Madan Mitra was sent to CBI custody till Dec 16 by a Kolkata court.
Rejecting the bail plea moved by Mitra’s lawyers, the chief judicial magistrate’s court sent him to four days’ custody in connection with the ponzi scandal.
The Saradha scam was caused by the collapse of the investment operation of the Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies, which ran many unlicensed financial schemes in eastern India.
Under the scam hundreds of thousands of small investors lost Rs. 2,459 crore, according to an official estimate. There are unofficial estimates that peg the figure higher.
