Terming the arrest of state minister Madan Mitra over the Saradha scam 'political vendetta', West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee hit out against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a protest rally in Kolkata on Saturday.
West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra arrives at the CBI's office in Kolkata hours before his arrest. (Subhankar Chakraborty/HT photo)
"There are photos of the Prime Minister with the Sahara chief. Should we demand that the CBI arrest the PM?" Mamata asked at a rally held in the Maidan area.
She said Trinamool Congress MPs will protest in Parliament against the arrest of state transport and sports minister Madan Mitra who is also her close aide.Mitra was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged role in the multi-crore-rupee chit fund scandal.
Meanwhile the opposition Left Front is scheduled to hold a rally at 2:30pm from the feet of the Lenin statue to Moulali to press for a three-point charter of demands including the grilling of Banerjee by the CBI in relation to the scam.
"Banerjee knows everything about the scandal, but she tried to brush it under the carpet with the Special Investigation Team of the state police probing the scam," said Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretariat member Sujon Chakraborty.
Madan Mitra is the first minister of Bengal to be arrested by the CBI in any case, and the fourth Trinamool leader to be held by the probe agency in the chit fund scam.
"It (the arrest) is unfortunate, shameful and deserves to be condemned. It's sheer political vendetta. Can the CBI and the Centre go out of their jurisdiction and act like this?" Mamata said.
The Saradha chit fund scam trail is hounding Banerjee's government unlike any other challenge she has encountered during her stint in power so far and Mitra's arrest triggered fresh calls from opposition leaders for her resignation.
Opposition parties have repeatedly accused the CM of trying to shield some of the beneficiaries of the company's slush funds.
The Saradha scam was caused by the collapse of the investment operation of the Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies, which ran many unlicensed financial schemes in eastern India.
Under the scam hundreds of thousands of small investors lost Rs. 2,459 crore, according to an official estimate. There are unofficial estimates that peg the figure higher.
The Supreme Court had in May ordered a CBI probe into the chit fund scams in West Bengal, Odisha and Assam under which various companies, including Saradha, allegedly duped investors of around Rs. 10,000 crore.
Two Rajya Sabha MPs (Kunal Ghosh, Srinjoy Bose) and a vice-president (Rajat Majumdar) of the Trinamool are already behind the bars in connection with the Saradha case.
The CBI arrested Mitra around 4pm on Friday after questioning him for about three hours during which he denied taking any money from Saradha, said an official privy to the development.
According to the official, who did not want to be named, Mitra stood his ground despite CBI officers confronting him with evidence.
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