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Under pressure from Bengal CID to name BJP, CPM leaders: Debjani Mukherjee
Debjani Mukherjee, the Saradha Group director who was arrested from Kashmir in 2013, said in the letter that CID officers asked if she knew BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty accepted ₹6 crore each from Saradha Group founder Sudipta Sen
KOLKATA: Lodged in a correctional home near Kolkata and named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in two charge sheets filed in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund case, Debjani Mukherjee has alleged through her mother that the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is putting pressure on her to accuse two opposition leaders of accepting money from Sudipta Sen, the Saradha Group owner who is also behind bars.
Mukherjee, who was the Saradha Group director, said in a hand-written letter to her lawyer on September 4 that CID officers met her inside the Dum Dum correctional home on August 23 and asked her if she knew that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari and CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty accepted ₹6 crore each from Sen before he and Mukherjee were arrested by the CID from Kashmir in April 2013.
In the letter, a copy of which was seen by HT, Mukherjee said the CID offered to make her a witness or approver but she claimed to have no knowledge of such payments.
The CID was probing the chit fund case before the CBI took over the investigation under orders from the Supreme Court.
In June, Sudipta Sen alleged that he gave money to Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as well as Adhikari and his younger brother, Soumendu, when the two were in the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Sen also named Mukul Roy, who joined the BJP in 2017 but returned to the TMC last year, as a recipient of funds from the Saradha group.
Sudipta Sen made the allegations before the media when he was being taken to Bankshall court in Kolkata for a hearing in a case related to Saradha Tours and Travels, one of the companies he owned.
Mukherjee’s mother, Sarbari Mukherjee, wrote to the CBI on September 7, accusing CID of pressuring her daughter to turn into a witness against Suvendu Adhikari and Sujan Chakraborty.
“My daughter is lodged in jail for ten years. CID officers told her that she will be named in nine more cases if she does not follow their instructions. I have urged the CBI to look into this. My daughter never saw Sudipta Sen giving any money to any politician. She never met Adhikari and Chakraborty,” Sarbari Mukherjee told the media on Thursday when her letter surfaced.
CID issued a statement denying the allegation.
The statement said: “It is clarified that Debjani Mukherjee, under investigation in CID case no 621/17 was examined on August 23 at Dum Dum Central Correctional Home in the presence of the staff of the correctional home, including a woman staff, by the investigating officer. Her statement was duly recorded by the officer after obtaining an order from the court. The false and baseless allegations raised by the mother of Debjani Mukherjee, as circulated in media, are categorically denied.”
“The media is requested to refrain from augmenting such false and malicious propaganda in any manner,” the statement said, adding that the CID conducts its investigations following legal procedures.
CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said he was ready to face any probe.
“CID does not know that communists are made of a different material. The CID officer who is doing this will land in trouble,” he said.
BJP state president Sukanta Mukherjee said CID was trying to divert people’s attention from the arrests of TMC leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal and the probe into their properties by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP in December 2020, tweeted: “Disgrace, total disgrace! The once glorious CID has now become the paid janitor of WB’s Bua-Bhatija. CID is indulging in criminality for advancing the nefarious interest of the Banerjees by intimidating undertrial prisoners to give false statements against WB Opposition leaders.”
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh, who is also an accused in the Saradha case, said: “It is well known that Adhikari used to extort Sudipta Sen when he was in the TMC. I said this in court as well. Why Mukherjee and her mother wrote these letters is something that needs to be probed. I cannot comment on that.”
It is alleged that the Saradha Group raised more than ₹2,500 crore, primarily from lower income group people, by promising high returns.
Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee were arrested by CID from Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir in April 2013 days after the case came to light. Kunal Ghosh, who was then a TMC Rajya Sabha member and headed the Saradha Group’s media division, was arrested in November 2013.
In October 2014, Ghosh, Sen and Mukherjee were named in CBI’s first charge sheet. They were accused under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. Ghosh was released on bail after about two years in jail.
