CBI, ED to question key TMC contestants ahead of Bengal polls

Kolkata The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) are set to question key Trinamool leaders Partha Chatterjee and Madan Mitra as part of investigations into two chit fund cases, days ahead of the eight-phase West Bengal assembly polls

Kolkata The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) are set to question key Trinamool leaders Partha Chatterjee and Madan Mitra as part of investigations into two chit fund cases, days ahead of the eight-phase West Bengal assembly polls.

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State education minister Partha Chatterjee is contesting the Behala West seat in south-west Kolkata while former minister Mitra is the candidate from Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas. Chatterjee is also the secretary general of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the state’s parliamentary affairs minister.

The ED on Friday questioned Samir Chakraborty, a Trinamool MLA from Taldangra in Bankura district, over two hours in connection with an investment he made in a news channel a few years ago.

“I will cooperate with the agency whenever it calls me,” Chakraborty said while leaving the ED office. Chakraborty, a veteran TMC leader, is not contesting the polls this time.

While Chatterjee is being summoned in a probe into the I-Core chit fund company, Mitra is a suspect in the Saradha chit fund case. Mitra was arrested in 2014 and unsuccessfully contested the 2016 assembly polls from jail.

The CBI also plans to question Ankush Arora, brother-in-law of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee. CBI officials questioned Arora’s wife Maneka Gambhir and Abhishek Banerjee’s wife, Rujira, a few days in connection with a coal smuggling case.

Arora’s father, Pawan Arora, has also been summoned to the CBI office on March 15, agency officials said. No member of the Arora family could be reached for comments.

TMC leaders reacted sharply to the development, saying they were being targeted because of the elections.

“Using probe agencies against prominent political adversaries is not something new. We have seen this happening in other states. It will have no effect in Bengal because people know the BJP very well,” said deputy parliamentary affairs minister Tapas Roy.

“One cannot scare an honest man. They can do whatever they want. This is being done because of the elections,” said Chatterjee, who took part in a campaign rally in his constituency on Friday. “I have not received the summons yet.”

Mitra was not available for comments as he was busy with a roadshow.

Kunal Ghosh, one of the spokespersons of the TMC and an accused in the Saradha case, has already been summoned by the ED twice over the past two weeks.

On February 21, chief minister Mamata Banerjee reacted in public for the first time after the CBI sent summons to Rujira Banerjee.

“A tiger cub is not scared of fighting cats and rats... We have stood before guns,” Banerjee retorted at a public event hours after the CBI visited the south Kolkata residence of her nephew and TMC Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee and served a notice on his wife for questioning in the coal smuggling case.

“Muscle flexing or threats of jail sentence cannot scare us. We have stood before guns in the past. We won’t be scared of fighting rats. I will not surrender as long as I am alive. You cannot break our spine. A tiger cub is not scared of cats and rats,” Banerjee said.

Abhishek Banerjee took to Twitter, saying that he will not be “cowed down”.

“TMC leaders start seeing political vendetta whenever the CBI or ED probes a case but they did not hesitate to get involved in corruption,” BJP state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said on Friday.

On December 31, the CBI raided three residences of businessman and the TMC’s youth front general secretary Vinay Mishra in connection with the coal smuggling case. Mishra is missing since then and has been declared an absconder by the agency.

Abhishek Banerjee is the president of the TMC’s youth wing. On July 20, he appointed 15 general secretaries, including Mishra.

It is alleged that illegally mined coal, worth several thousand crores of rupees, was sold in the black market over several years by a racket operating in the western parts of West Bengal where Eastern Coalfields Ltd runs several mines. Another prime suspect, Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is also missing.

In early December, the CBI raided the home and office of Ganesh Bagaria, a Kolkata-based chartered accountant. The homes and offices of three more businessmen have been raided since January.

The agency has not made any official statement before the media till date.

Ever since the probe started in September, the BJP has been alleging that money from the sales was “whitewashed” through shell companies and siphoned into the funds of the ruling party. The BJP has also alleged that the main beneficiary is Abhishek Banerjee. Banerjee has dismissed the allegations as political vendetta.