Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started an inquiry into the allegation that Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Ahmed Hassan Imran had used Saradha Group funds to create unrest in Bangladesh.
The inquiry comes within days of Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali conveying his concerns to Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, reports Times of India.
According to the report, three days later, an NIA team arrived in Kolkata to probe into allegations that funds could have been channelized to Bangladeshi "Islamic fundamentalist" party Jamaat-e-Islami and that Ahmed Hassan might have had some role in it.
Quoting sources, the report said the NIA officers had initial discussions with their CBI and Enforcement Directorate counterparts in this connection.
"They came to Kolkata to gather initial information about Saradha money trail that might have crossed to Bangladesh," a CBI officer investigating the Saradha scam said.
The NIA officers, it is learnt, had collected several editions of a publication the MP edits, the report said adding NIA also spoke to several prominent Muslim organisations.
"They are trying to gauge the fallout. We are providing them all the material related to the investigation," an ED officer said.
The NIA team will come to Kolkata again in November, the report adds quoting sources.
With the NIA stepping in, it's all the more clear that the Centre is keen to get to the root of Saradha cash trail, it reads.
NIA — unlike CBI and ED — can investigate and prosecute offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India and relations with foreign states, the report said.
According to the report, the MP has admitted that these aspects were part of the ED questionnaire to him on September 9. He was questioned for over seven hours.
Speaking to TOI, the MP said: "They (ED officials) suddenly asked me whether I sent money to Jamaat. This is absurd. It is a political propaganda to malign me and my party. I have filed a defamation suit of Rs 50 crore against a journalist for publishing such unsubstantiated articles on me."
The Bangladesh-India foreign minister level talks held in New Delhi on September 20.
