BPF suspects IG role in shielding Saradha agents, disrupts house

Guwahati: Allegations brought against an Assam Police IG that he shielded agents and officials of Saradha chit fund company and gave them a free hand to carry out the company’s operations in the state rocked the house on Saturday.
“I have seen written instruction from an IGP to all the SPs of Assam, asking them to give protection to officials and agents of Saradha so that they can carry out their fraudulent operations freely,” claimed Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) legislator Pramila Rani Brahma on the last day of the assembly’s budget session.
She demanded that the IGP be interrogated by the CBI. “I have strong doubts that money was accepted against the shield guaranteed to the agents and the state government was protecting a fraud company like Saradha. This company has eaten into the state government,” she said outside the house.
The CBI, which is probing the multi-crore chit-fund scam, is also investigating the shielding angle that has cropped up in the case. The central investigating agency has started interrogating popular singer Sadananda Gogoi in Kolkata, who is alleged to have played a key role in facilitating meetings between the arrested Saradha CMD, Sudipta Sen, and the influential people in the state occupying top government posts.
Congress legislator and AICC secretary Bhupen Borah also raised a point of order in the house on Saturday urging the state government to carry an exhaustive campaign to educate the state people against such chit fund companies.
“Thousands of people have been duped by Saradha and other such chit fund companies. The government should carry out a full fledged campaign across the state and educate the people so that no one can be duped by such companies in future,” Borah said inside the house.
CBI has already registered cases of alleged giving of protection money by Saradha to various persons in Odisha and West Bengal.