SFIO probe lifts curtain off Saradha's dirty deals and Ghosh's role
No financial benefit was derived by Saradha by acquiring or making large investments in these companies. Blackmail was used to compel Sudipta Sen to acquire Bengal Media.
The serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) conducted a detailed forensic audit of the Saradha Group's bank statements to ascertain its investments. The investigation revealed that seven companies were acquired with their assets-Bengal Media, Global Automobiles, Broadcast Worldwide Anubhuti Printers & Publishers, GNN India, media companies of Positiv Group and Heritage Television. Barring Global Automobiles, the other six were all in the media space. Four of these transactions were completed and the remaining three deals could not be finalised though a substantial amount of funds were blocked.
The common element in these acquisitions was that the companies so acquired by the group were mostly loss making companies and continued to be so even after their acquisition by Saradha. No financial benefit was derived by Saradha by acquiring or making large investments in these companies. Blackmail was used to compel Sudipta Sen to acquire Bengal Media.
Investigation reveals that apart from the issue of excess payments made by Saradha to these seven companies, two of the companies-Bengal Media and Global Automobiles-had also independently violated various provisions of law. Bengal Media for instance had started a 24x7 Bengali news channel known as Channel 10 (see graphic). Saradha Realty bought it for `16.50 crore even though it had a negative net worth of `4.45 crore. Enter the controversial Kunal Ghosh, suspended Trinamool Congress MP who purportedly tried to commit suicide on Friday in Kolkata. Saradha boss Sudipta Sen in his deposition to SFIO inspectors said, "Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose (Trinamool Rajya Sabha member and owner of Bengali daily Pratidin) had aggressively made the deal for transfer of Bengal Media Pvt Ltd which owned Channel 10. As Pratidin did not own any electronic media channel, they desperately wanted to acquire one and compelled me to acquire BMPL. They had initially started campaigning against me in their Pratidin daily newspaper by claiming that I was Bhudeb Chandra Sen's son who had earlier siphoned off large public funds. Even though I visited them a number of times and pleaded with them with folded hands to stop maligning me in this way as I am son of late Nripendra Narayan Sen. But they blackmailed me that they would stop such a campaign only if I buy BMPL on their behalf."
This statement clearly shows that Sen was hustled and bamboozled into striking the deal which is further substantiated in his next statement to SFIO, "No proper valuation was done before acquiring BMPL and Srinjoy Ghosh and Somnath Dutta (vice-president of Saradha's media wing) mediated and quoted the amount of `16.50 crore." The role of Ghosh as such has always been under question in this deal.
The probe also revealed that the MoU executed between BMPL and Pratidin Prakashan was to collaborate for the purpose of running Channel 10. It was decided that BMPL would pay Pratidin a fixed monthly charge of `60 lakh towards operation charges and an additional variable monthly charge of 30 per cent of the net profit from the operations of the said channel. Pratidin agreed to pay salaries and other remuneration to the editorial staff, and all other costs, charges and expenses for the operations and telecast were to be borne by BMPL.
Sudipta Sen also narrated to SFIO inspectors in another deposition that as part of his deal with Pratidin Television, which was owned by Srinjoy Bose and Swapan Sadhan Bose alias Tutu Bose, `15 lakh per month was given to Kunal Ghosh as he was appointed CEO of the company handling print and electronic media. "Kunal Ghosh was earlier drawing around `60,000 per month and he was imposed ON ME with a salary of `15 lakh", he said. When Srinjoy Bose was examined, he said, "We were told that Sudipta was the son of Bhudeb Sen of Sanchayani Finance which had cheated millions of people in Bengal in the past and he was operating the business in the guise of Sudipta Sen. We did quite a few stories against this person and he subsequently approached us with all the relevant papers to say that he was nowhere related to Sanchayani Group or Bhudeb Sen." Which means that Sudipta Sen was blackmailed by Bose and Co. When questioned on 17.10.2013 and 21.10.2013, Kunal Ghosh corroborated this partly saying, "Had information that Sudipta Sen (was) son of Bhudeb Sen who was connected with Sanchayani Finance had revived with a new company and was recruiting employees from Sangbad Pratidin for their newspapers. So we attacked Sen from a professional point of view. But once he met them and clarified that he was not the same Sudipta Sen, Pratidin stopped publishing articles against him."
Interestingly, Ghosh was the undisputed CEO of the company and he has stated that film star Mithun Chakraborty, now TMC MP in Rajya Sabha, participated in a political and social programme- Bangla Bolche Sange Mithun-as a political programme anchor for which he was paid `20 lakh per month. From the investigation findings, it is clear as daylight that Kunal Ghosh was one of the presiding deities over Saradha's media empire. The balance sheets of Pratidin and Bengal Media don't reflect the professional charges paid by BMPL to Ghosh during the year.