Congress councillor gives CBI documents on Saradha scam

Prakash Upadhyay, a Congress councillor who has questioned the role of the civic corporation as well as mayor Sovon Chatterjee in the Saradha case, Tuesday met officials of the CBI which is probing the multi-crore rupee scandal.

Upadhyay, who has alleged that Chatterjee unscrupulously gave a number of trade licences to the tainted company, submitted documents regarding his allegations to the Central Bureau Of Investigation officials here. "I told the officials about role of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in granting trade licences to a company of the Saradha Group. I urged them to thoroughly investigate all aspects of the scam and arrest those who swindled money of the poor," Upadhyay said after the meeting.

He earlier approached the Enforcement Directorate, which too has been probing the scandal. The Supreme Court, hearing a public interest litigation May 9, handed over the scam probe to the CBI. Following the court's directive, the agency Monday constituted a special investigation team (SIT) comprising officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar to probe the scam which left lakhs of investors across five states bankrupt. Meanwhile, arrested scam kingpin Sudipta Sen appeared before the Shyamal Sen Commission, formed by Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal government to probe the scam and recommend ways of returning money to the depositors.

While Sen has been regularly appearing before the commission, his appearance Tuesday was the first after the CBI took over the probe. The commission, which has received applications for refund from nearly 17.39 lakh depositors, has indemnified a large number of the applicants.