Saradha chief hoped to get asylum in PoK: Aide

Saradha chairman Sudipta Sen planned to go to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on April 22, when he was fleeing the police in Kolkata, his principal aide Debjani Mukherjee has told the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation.

Saradha chairman Sudipta Sen planned to go to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on April 22, when he was fleeing the police in Kolkata, his principal aide Debjani Mukherjee has told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Sen hoped to get asylum in Pakistan as he published newspapers for Muslims in India.

Mukherjee overheard him and Arvind Singh Chauhan, the driver, discuss the plan.

“When we started from Udhampur on the morning of April 22, 2013, I heard Sudipta and Arvind’s plans to move to PoK. One of Saradha’s office personnel in Srinagar, Riaz, was a resident of Kashmir and according to Arvind, he (Riaz) would visit PoK frequently,” Mukherjee told ED officials in her written statement, the Enforcement Case Information Report, which is available with HT.

“If he (Sen) went to Pakistan, then he could have gone to the high commission saying he runs one Urdu and one Bengali newspaper for Muslims in India,” Mukherjee’s statement said.