Painter stays away from probe, ED may take legal step

KOLKATA: Shuvaprasanna, who told the other day that everything was documented in his deal with the Saradha Group, made himself conspicuous by his absence for questioning on Wednesday. But it hardly mattered for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which may now move court seeking legal steps.
Central agencies have already identified the painter’s properties in Salt Lake, Raichak and Mumbai and investigators may attach them by December.
According to sources, a top ED official is likely to fly down to Kolkata from Delhi this week to take stock of the investigation. He will particularly focus on those who have been evading ED summons repeatedly. “If we find that someone is not appearing without any valid reason, we can definitely take legal steps against him,” an investigator said.
On Wednesday, Shuvaprasanna skipped ED summons and sent his chartered accountant instead. The non-compliance has met with a flutter among investigators. “Other stakeholders of his company came to the office after they were summoned. But he didn’t turn up to clarify the questions we still have about the deal. Since he has not turned up, we are going to decide if we will summon him once again,” said an ED official.
Shuvaprasana is yet to satisfy investigators on how shares of a dud television channel, of which he was a share holder, appreciated so much. The court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), in its submission to Supreme Court, put the sale value at
Rs 14 crore when the company was floated with an initial capital of Rs 3.5 crore. The painter also needs to answer why all shares of Devkripa Vyapaar Pvt Ltd were sold in a day to none other than Sudipta Sen, who is found to have bought many loss-making units at a premium.
Investigators have reasons to believe that a part of the money the painter got by selling off of his shares and those of his wife Shipra and daughter Jonaki Bhattacharya went to businessmen who invested the money in various properties.
There are some other intriguing facts as well. For instance, Shuvaprasanna and his daughter Jonaki continued as directors along with Sudipta Sen and Debjani Mukherjee on the board. The annual returns filed with the Registrar of Companies on September 28, 2012, shows Shuvaprasanna and his daughter as directors even after the transfer of shares to Saradha Group. The artist told CBI that they had written to the Saradha boss to relieve them from the board but “it had not reflected in the annual returns”.
Sudipta and Debjani — who are both in custody now — were inducted in the board of directors six months later, in July. For at least two months after the induction, Shuvaprasanna and his daughter were also on the board.
Interestingly, all 14 shareholders of Devkripa, including Shuvaprasanna and his wife, transferred all shares at one go on January 2, 2012 — mostly to Saradha Construction Company and the rest to Sudipta Sen.
According to sources, Shuvaprasanna might have continued on the board because he did not get the entire promised amount. On paper, the company had a capital of Rs 3.5 crore, divided into 35 lakh shares of Rs 10 each. The bone of contention is what price the shares were sold for.
The situation may be turning grave for Shuvaprasanna as he has lost the political clout he once had. Once the blue-eyed boy of Mamata Banerjee, the artist now seems to have fallen from grace with hardly anyone to throw the weight behind him. Significant is chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent announcement at the Esplanade rally where she said: “One or two outsiders close to the party might have had a hand in the Ponzi scam.”