BJP demands Mamata's statement on Saradha scam

Keeping up the pressure on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the Saradha chit fun scam, the BJP Wednesday demanded a white paper from the state government and a statement from her on the scandal.

BJP state president Rahul Sinha, who led a party delegation to Governor K.N. Tripathi during the day, also demanded the resignation of ministers whose names have cropped up in course of the investigation into the scam, said to be running into thousands of crores of rupees.

"The shadow of the Saradha scandal looms large in the state. But the chief minister is silent. So we told the governor that the head of the government should immediately come out with a statement," Sinha said.

"Those ministers whose names have cropped up in the scandal should put in their papers, for the sake of their own image and also that of the government," he said.

While suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh was arrested by the Special Investigation Team of police last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation Tuesday nabbed another party leader and retired IPS officer Rajat Majumdar.

Textiles Minister Shyamapada Mukherjee and the Trinamool's Rajya Sabha member Ahmed Hassan Imran have been interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate, which is also probing the muddle.

Two aides of Sports and Transport Minister Madan Mitra have also been questioned by the CBI.

"The government should publish a white paper detailing the various angles of the scandal," said Sinha.

Opposition parties - the BJP, CPI-M and the Congress - as also Kunal Ghosh have trained their guns on the chief minister in the past few days for the scam.