Congress, CPI-M jointly attack Mamata over Saradha scam

While a formal tie-up is yet to materialise, the CPI-M and the Congress on Wednesday launched a united attack on West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress over the multi-crore-rupee Saradha scam.

Under the banner of Chit Fund Sufferers Unity Forum, CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty and Congress leader Abdul Mannan alleged a conspiracy between the Trinamool and the BJP to thwart the CBI probe in the Saradha scam and called for building up a mass movement to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Leaders from both the parties also insisted the talks on the proposed tie-up were on track while Congress and Marxist activists and supporters on the day painted joint symbols of the parties and took rallies in several parts of the state.

"The fight to get justice is challenging, especially when the BJP government at the Centre and the Trinamool government have been conspiring to thwart the probe," said Mannan.

Mannan, who played an instrumental role in the Supreme Court ordering the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the Saradha scam, said he will be moving the court again seeking a status report of the probe.

Probing the scam, the CBI had interrogated and arrested several leaders of the Trinamool, including former minister Madan Mitra.

Calling for indemnifying all the investors ruined by the scam, Chakraborty demanded punishment for the "big fishes", including those "sitting in the Nabanna" (the state secretariat).

Chakraborty also sought to play down Left Front partner Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) state secretary Kshiti Goswami's recent comments that Congress was a "communal party".

"I don't think RSP considers Congress as a communal party. So far as we are concerned, even during the Emergency, when our leaders were in jail, we did not call the Congress communal," said Chakraboty.

Mannan said the process for the alliance is on and in adue course of time everything will be clear'.