More pro-TMC names figure in Saradha mess

The political angle in the Bengal chit-fund scam seems to be getting more pronounced, with new names added each day.

The latest to figure among those who had transacted with Saradha Group CMD Sudipta Sen are those of intellectuals with Trinamool Congress (TMC)-leaning — painter Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya and theatre personality Arpita Ghosh, who led from the front the ‘Paribartan Chai’ campaign in Bengal.

Bhattacharya was the owner of Devkripa Vyapaar Pvt Ltd, the holding company of Akhon Samay, a proposed news channel (that never went on air). He had sold the channel to Sen in 2011 for Rs 5.30 crore.

“I sold it for Rs 5.30 crore; of that, Rs 30 lakh is still due. All the financial transactions took place through cheques, some of which bounced. I eventually got Rs 5 crore cleared,” he said.

He added he was not aware of the developments at the firm since he and his daughter, Jonaki, resigned on November 7, 2011. “I owned Devkripa, while my daughter was on the board,” he confirmed.

According to the painter, Sen was not the only suitor for the channel. Talks had been initiated with IIPM’s Arindam Chaudhuri and his father. “Sen showed a lot of interest and the deal was done in a hurry,” Bhattacharya said.

The valuation, reached at internally, had raised some eyebrows. Interestingly, Sen’s 18-page letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which detailed how Channel 10 was sold for Rs 55 lakh, did not mention the sale of Akhon Samay for a much higher amount.

The channel had 45 employees. “It was being set up, but then I ran into difficulties as some wanted to intrude into my channel with ill intentions. It was the biggest mistake of my life,” Bhattacharya said.

According to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies, Devkripa was incorporated in 2006. It is not clear when the channel had applied for permission, but it got uplinking permission on April 15, 2010. There were allegations that Mamata Banerjee, then Union railway minister, had thrown in her weight to quicken the process. Incidentally, Bhattacharya had been made the chairman of Railways’ Passenger Amenities Committee when Banerjee took charge as the railway minister.

After Sen bought Devkripa — one of the companies he later used for making circular transactions with a clutch of other companies — theatre personality Arpita Ghosh was roped in to head Akhon Samay. Ghosh (former member of the Railway Cultural and Heritage Committee) did not respond to text messages sent by Business Standard, but was heard telling some television channels that Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh had approached her for the role.

If Transport Minister Madan Mitra was seen effusively praising Sen at Saradha’s annual agents’ meeting, MPs Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose had been named in Sen’s letter to CBI. Agents had also claimed that another TMC MP, Shatabdi Roy, was the company’s brand ambassador. Roy, however, said, she became that as an actor.