JOIN USA day after the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing arrested, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's close aide Sibaji Panja on charges of fraud, a team from Delhi quizzed him over the exact extent of the fraud.
Panja was arrested and later released on conditional bail on Sunday for duping a Delhi-based company of Rs 18 crore.
The police said Panja’s arrest came following a complaint by Jeevan Kumar, senior vice-president (finance) of IFCI Factors Limited, that Panja, as managing director of RP Infosystems, took Rs 10 crore and Rs 8 crore as loan on two separate occasions against pending bills, which were supposed to be cleared by 2014.
While Panja’s arrest could be the fallout of just another business deal gone wrong, what stands out is the fact that he was arrested from the Kolkata airport on Sunday when returning from Dhaka as part of a trade and cultural delegation that had accompanied Banerjee to the neighbouring nation.
The circumstances of his arrest have left the ruling party red in the face. Matters came to such a head that when asked for about it, a furious Banerjee on Sunday threatened to have a journalist arrested if he continued questions on those lines.
Panja shares a good rapport with the Chief Minister’s Office, and was often hailed as the gate-keeper to the world of glitz and glamour for Banerjee. Sources within the party admitted that over the last three years Panja had come closer to Banerjee and senior Trinamool leaders.
Panja’s rise from a small-time computer businessman to a media baron has been noted as phenomenal. With his sphere of influence growing, he was made a member of a task force formed to guide the State Department of Information and Culture.
A member of the Tele Academy, Panja is also the convenor of the annual Kolkata International Film Festival. Sources pointed out that such was Panja’s clout within the Trinamool that many called him “Sibaji the Boss”, a la the superhit Rajinikanth-starrer.