Madan Mitra grilled on Saradha’s political links

KOLKATA: Barely a fortnight after CBI filed the third supplementary chargesheet in the Saradha scam, the sleuths interrogated transport minister Madan Mitra over the role of the politicians and ministers in ‘endorsing’ Saradha among investors. The sleuths are scheduled to interrogate Madan on Friday again.
During an hour-long interrogation, CBI sleuths repeatedly harped on the role of government officials and politicians and nature of their involvement in Saradha’s growth.Earlier, the agency had sought a city court’s nod to interrogate Madan after almost six months. After getting the approval from the Alipore District and Sessions court, CBI officials, F B Karna and Tathagata Bardhan, on Thursday went to SSKM hospital to grill the minister.
The officials started interrogating Madan from 1.30 pm after doctors allowed them to do so. The minister, who has been suffering from pneumonia for the last few days, was made to sit in a reclining position. According to sources, Mitra claimed that it is the same government that arrested Saradha kingpin Sudipta Sen. “Had they been trying to promote him, Saradha bubble would not have burst,” Madan reportedly claimed.
CBI had submitted the third supplementary chargesheet in the scam barely a month back. Earlier, it had said that the minister had been instrumental in helping Saradha to spread its net and influence investors.
According to sources, the interrogation was focused on finding political links of the Ponzi firm and the leaders who benefited from that. The agency has already interrogated Trinamool leaders, including some MPs, and sent summons to a few more. Madan was arrested in December last year.
Investigators have reasons to believe that one of the trade union leaders of the ruling party had frequented Saradha office at D N block in Salt Lake. During interrogation, one of the accused persons has claimed that the trade union leader was one of the members of the advisory committee in Saradha group-run news channel ‘Ekhon Samay’. Investigators believe that Madan was well aware of other political leaders who were getting benefits from the group. While CBI sleuths claimed that Madan Mitra had been a ‘major beneficiary’ of the Saradha muddle, the minster on Thursday reportedly claimed that he had little knowledge about the firm’s intentions. Officials questioned Mitra about the political leaders who received money before the 2011 election and helped the firm to grow by endorsing it at public forums.
Meanwhile, the minster was given medicines during the interrogation. According to sources, Mitra has been detected with very low levels of oxygen in blood a few days back. Mitra’s advocate Niladri Bhattacharya claimed that he has cooperated with the agency completely despite his health. Apart from pneumonia, Mitra is also suffering from lung infection, hypertension, type II diabetes mellitus, stage III nephropathy, COPD and obstructive sleep apnoea. He also underwent psychological counselling and doctors prescribed intensifying psychotherapy earlier this month.