This article was published in The Times of India on 24 August, 2015
After a six-month probe into Trinamool Congress’s sources of funds, the CBI has not found any suspicious transactions in the party’s accounts, especially from the Saradha group of companies.
“We have analyzed the income tax returns and other documents related to TMC but there is no unexplained or suspicious transaction in the accounts from Saradha companies, as suspected earlier,” a top CBI official said.
Probing TMC’s funds, which included purchase of one of Mamata’s paintings by Saradha group chief Sudipta Sen for Rs 1.80 crore, was part of CBI’s FIR which focused on the wider conspiracy in the Saradha chit fund scam. It was being suspected that Saradha group gave several crores to TMC between 2010 and 2014, which were not legitimate transactions.
The agency had examined TMC general secretary Subrata Baxi seeking details of party’s accounts earlier this year.
TMC had attacked CBI several times, saying it was working on the directions of the Centre.
Arrest of several leaders by the CBI in the multi-crore Saradha scam had put the party on the back foot. The CBI has arrested and charge-sheeted senior TMC leaders including Madan Mitra, former Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose in the Rs 2,500 crore ponzi scam.
Congress leader and former minister of state for home in the Narsihma Rao government Matang Sinh was also arrested and named in a charge-sheet earlier this month for allegedly siphoning off Rs 28 crore from the ponzi schemes run by Saradha chairman Sudipta Sen.
Meanwhile, the agency on Sunday lodged five more FIRs against different chit fund companies operating in Assam for cheating several thousand investors. The companies named in the fresh FIRs include Rose Valley, Silicon MultiServices Ltd, Uro Agro India Ltd, Uro Infra Reality India Ltd and Prayag Hi-Rise Infotech Ltd, CBI spokesperson Kanchan Prasad said.