My signatures forged: Shuva

KOLKATA: Painter Shuvaprasanna on Monday claimed before Enforcement Directorate (ED) that his signatures were forged in some of the statutory documents filed with the Registrar of Companies. He even claimed to be unaware of several transactions made by the company, which he had sold to Saradha kingpin Sudipta Sen.
The ED interrogated him for over five hours and might summon him again before it wraps up the case.
ED officials, who questioned Shuvaprasanna for the third time on Monday, were surprised to find his signature on an agreement asking him to perform his duties as a director even after the firm was sold.
According to sources, the painter initially could not remember signing those documents. Later he told investigators that his signature might have been forged. “He was not able to explain several such documents, including his consent to act as a director of the company. Those documents had his signature,” an ED official said.
However, Shuvaprasanna could not be reached for any comment on this issue.
Devkripa Vyapaar was floated in 2006 with several other shareholders. The company, owned by Shuvaprasanna, had planned to launch the channel Akhon Samay as a Trinamool mouthpiece in 2010. Shuvaprasanna got a licence for the channel in April 2010. In June that year, his daughter Jonaki was inducted as a director. The annual return 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.
Questions were raised about the amount he was paid for selling the channel. In its report, the state government-formed SIT had claimed that shares of Devkripa Vyapaar was sold for Rs 14 crore and all the shareholders were paid in full. According to ED officials, going by the records, Rs 6.5 crore was paid by Sen while he was planning to buy the channel. ED officials had also been looking into whether the painter had obtained power of attorney from the other 12 shareholders who had invested in Akhon Samay.
The central investigating agency has already interrogated some of the shareholders. They alleged there were no meetings and they did not even know each other. They claimed Sen paid them the amount towards share transfers. ED officials on Monday summoned one of the 12 shareholders and interrogated him and Shuvaprasanna together.
Documents of the company, obtained from the ministry of corporate affairs, show that Suvaprasanna’s company invested Rs 3 crore in his TV project, showing his Mumbai property as fixed asset. ED has frozen his 24 bank accounts and attached the Mumbai property.