West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee started her dharna today in support of Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar against whom CBI launched a probe in connection with the Saradha scam. Earlier today, when CBI officials arrived at Kumar’s residence, five of them were detained by Kolkata Police. They were later released. Following this, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came out in support of Kumar and called the CBI probe against him a political vendetta.
TMC MP Derek O’Brien also blamed Modi and Shah for the CBI probe and said that the investigation is being carried out on behest of NSA Ajit Doval.
Derek O’Brien, TMC: They landed with 40 CBI officials at police commissioner’s residence in Kolkata. They don’t even have a search warrant. The perpetrators are actually Modi, Shah and Ajit Doval, I heard it from my sources and I say this with full responsibility. pic.twitter.com/gTdvreF323
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2019
Interim CBI Chief M Nageshwar Rao said that there is evidence against Kumar and he has been instrumental in causing the destruction of the evidence and obstructing justice.
Interim CBI chief M Nageshwar Rao to ANI: They have taken charge of all the evidence, seized all the documents. They have not been cooperating with us in handing over all the documents and a lot of evidence has been destroyed or caused to disappear. https://t.co/c2bDy5ExAL
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2019
Rao said that they have taken charge of all evidence and seized all documents and are not cooperating with the CBI. He even said that a lot of evidence is being destroyed or being caused to disappear. Earlier, too, the CBI had claimed that the West Bengal government was obstructing investigation in Saradha Chit Fund scam. It has alleged that the “hostile” government is delaying the filing of the final charge sheet.
Meanwhile, the Opposition has come out in support of Mamata. Former Prime Minister, JD(S)’ Deve Gowda has extended his support and said that the situation is like that during the Emergency. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, too, expressed solidarity with Mamata and blamed Modi and Shah for an SC directed move.
The Saradha Scam was brought to light in 2013. Many political leaders were connected with this Ponzi scheme that was run by a consortium of over 200 companies. The Saradha Group had reportedly collected more than 200 billion rupees from lakhs of small investors. The Group had collapsed in April 2013 and a year later, the Supreme Court of India had ordered the CBI to take over the investigation from the state SIT.
