New Delhi/Kolkata, March 10 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned noted Bengali artist Subhaprasanna and Trinamool Congress MLA Samir Chakraborty for questioning in connection with its probe into the Saradha chit fund case, the probe agency said on Wednesday.
The fresh summons to two more people in the case comes just eight days after the financial probe agency questioned Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghose.
According to ED sources, the agency wants to quiz them in connection with the money laundering probe.
The source said the agency has asked Subhaprasanna to appear before the agency sleuths on March 15 and the Trinamool Congress MLA from Taldangra on March 12 for questioning.
Their statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
However, ED officials remained tightlipped on the developments.
According to ED sources, Subhaprasanna was quizzed regarding certain financial transactions done with the Saradha Group through his bank account with regard to the sale of a television channel to Sudipta Sen, the chief of Saradha group, who is in prison.According to ED sources, Rs 6 crore transaction between Subhaprasanna and Sen had happened.
Subhaprasanna has been questioned in the case in 2019 and 2015 also.His daughter was questioned in 2016 in connection with the case by the ED.
Meanwhile, Samir Chakraborty, who has been denied a ticket for the 2021 Assembly polls in the state, has also been asked to appear.
The ED had earlier questioned Subhaprasanna in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam case in March 2015.
The artist, known to be close to West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress, was interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for four hours in 2015.
The CBI and the ED, which are probing the ponzi scam, have interrogated a number of Trinamool Congress leaders and close aides of the party in the last few years.
On December 27 last year, the CBI in an application in the Supreme Court informed that the CM Relief fund had regularly paid the amounts — at the rate of Rs 27 lakh per month — for a period of 23 months from May 2013 to April 2015.It said that a total of Rs 6.21 crore was paid to the Tara TV Employees Welfare Association from the Chief Minister Relief Fund of West Bengal.
In recent times, the CBI also recorded the statement of West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira Banerjee and her sister Menka Gambhir in connection with the illegal coal smuggling case.
The central agencies’ actions have turned the heat on in the poll-bound West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP are engaged in a bitter war of words.
Polling to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases, on March 27, April 1, April 6, April 10, April 17, April 22, April 26 and April 29.Counting will take place on May 2
.
