JOIN USPonzi scam case: CBI summons West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday issued summons to Trinamool Congress leaders Partha Chatterjee and Madan Mitra respectively in connection with separate ponzi scam cases, sources in the agencies said.
The ED also summoned former TMC Rajya Sabha members businessman Swapan Sadhan Bose and journalist Ahmed Hassan Imran - in connection with a case.
Chatterjee, TMC secretary general and senior West Bengal minister, was allegedly seen in some of the public functions arranged by the now-defunct I-core chit fund company which was charged with duping investors by offering them abnormally high returns on investments. The economic offences wing of the CBI asked him to depose before its sleuths by next week at the CGO Complex office of the agency in Kolkata.
The ED probing the money laundering aspect of multi- crore Saradha scam asked Imran, Bose and Mitra to depose before its officials on March 17, 18 and 19 respectively, sources said.
Mitra was earlier arrested by the CBI in a Saradha scam case and was in jail for 21 months. He was released on bail in September 2016.
Chatterjee, the state's parliamentary affairs, school education and higher education minister said that he has not received any such communication from the CBI so far.
"If I am called, I will definitely go. I can be present at any public meeting by virtue of being a minister. Please remember that I left a highly lucrative job to join politics and I have no greed for money," he told reporters.
Chatterjee used to work in diversified PSU Andrew Yule before joining politics.
Like Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund companies, I- core raised money from the public by several fraudulent schemes floated by it.
The CBI had taken over the investigation of Saradha and other ponzi scam cases on the orders of the Supreme Court on May 9, 2014.