With two days of successive grilling of the personal assistant of Transport Minister Madan Mitra, the CBI is seemingly closing in on to key leaders of the ruling party. The agency is investigating the multi-crore Saradha ponzy scam.
On Friday the investigating agency called Bapi Karim, the former personal assistant of Mr Mitra, to its Salt Lake office, a day after he was interrogated for eight hours.
“The CBI was questioning me again and again about him (Mr Mitra),” Mr Karim told the journalists.
Mr Karim, who claimed that he is being made a "scapegoat" in the scam, admitted that he had visited the headquarters of the scam-tainted Saradha Group several times.
“I went to Saradha office to give an invitation card of a programme. The company donated Rs 1 crore for the renovation work of the Laxmi- Narayan temple and the Minister was present at the event," he told journalists.
In April, Mr Mitra had admitted that Saradha Chairman and Managing Director Sudipta Sen had donated Rs 3 crore for a temple in his constituency at Bishnupur in the South 24 Parganas district. Mr Karim's admission may come as corroborative evidence.
The long grilling of Mr Karim is considered as an attempt by the CBI to gather evidence against Mr Mitra. Several discrepancies have also emerged in the statement made by Mr Karim, sources said. There have been video footages of Mr Mitra being present at a number of events with Saradha kingpin where he lauded the businessman.
