Expedite CBI probes into Rose Valley chit fund, journalist murder cases: Tripura CM urges Shah

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and urged him to expedite the CBI probe into the cases related to Rose Valley chit fund and murder of two working journalists.

The Chief Minister had an extensive discussion with Shah on various issues including the proposed integrated check post at Sabroom and border fencing.

"During the meeting with Amit Shah ji today I requested him to speed up the CBI investigations of Rose Valley chit fund and popular journalist murder cases. The culprits involved in both cases should get severe punishment," Deb tweeted.

After assurances from Shah, the Chief Minister claimed that the CBI team would soon reach Tripura to investigate the cases.

"CBI investigation in Rose Valley chit fund case will give full justice to poor investors of Tripura. Accepting my request hon'ble HM has instructed top officials to expedite investigation for both the cases. It is expected that in a few days CBI will come to Tripura in this regard," he said in another tweet.

After coming to power in the state, the BJP government had handed over all the chit fund cases being investigated by the state government's Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the illegal collection of money from people by unauthorised chit fund operators.

The state BJP has alleged that the previous Left Front government in the state had, in various ways, backed the unauthorised chit fund organisations and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) in looting huge amounts of money from lakhs of gullible people.

The allegations have been strongly refuted by opposition CPI-M.

Rose Valley, a Kolkata-based chit fund company, is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI.

The CBI investigation into the murder cases of journalists is related to the killings of Santanu Bhowmik and Sudip Dutta Bhowmik.

Santanu Bhowmik was hacked to death while covering political protests in 2017, while Sudip Dutta Bhowmik was shot dead inside Tripura State Rifles 2nd battalion headquarters at RK Nagar in West Tripura in 2017.

Miffed with the progress in the CBI probe into the murder of the two working journalists, scribes in the state have threatened an agitation on Friday.

They have demanded that the truth behind the murders of the two journalists should be made public without delay.