CBI gets Tapas Paul's 3-day remand

A court here on Saturday rejected the bail plea of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Tapas Paul and allowed the CBI to take him on three-day remand.

Paul would be in the investigating agency's remand for further questioning in connection with the multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam.

The Special CJM court of CBI here allowed the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) to take the TMC MP on remand.

The investigating agency had requested the court to take him on a five-day remand for further questioning into the chit fund scam.

After arresting Paul on Friday from Kolkata for his alleged links with Rose Valley chit fund scam, the agency brought him to Bhubaneswar.

CBI sources said they would question the TMC MP to elicit more information about his financial transactions with the chit fund firm.

However, Paul's counsel said his client's arrest in politically motivated.

"He has been made a victim under political pressure since he is a celebrity and an MP. Some are trying to take political mileage over the issue," Paul's laywer Arun Acharya told the mediapersons here.

After four hours of investigation, Paul was arrested in Kolkata.

A CBI official said the investigating agency was not happy or satisfied with the answers provided by Paul.

The TMC MP said this is vendetta politics and he would contest this arrest in the court of law.

According to the official, Paul was involved in "financial transactions" with the Rose Valley chit fund organisation.

The actor-turned-politician was summoned by the agency on Tuesday along with Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay for questioning in relation to the ponzi scam.

Following the summon, the Trinamool Congress accused the central government of doing vendetta politics and using central agencies to scare the party as they were protesting the demonetisation move.

--IANS

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