Congress demands Mamata's resignation over Saradha mess

Firing a fresh salvo at West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress over the Saradha Group scam in West Bengal, the Congress Saturday demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her "ignorance" about the chit fund muddle.

"Is it believable that the chief minister had no prior information about the scam that was waiting to happen? If she is really that much ignorant, then she has no right to continue. She must immediately resign," Congress parliamentarian Deepa Dasmunshi said here.

Ever since the Saradha scam broke out, Banerjee has maintained that she had no idea till April 15 about the flourishing chit fund business and the financial irregularities of Saradha.

"Apart from SEBI, various other departments have written to her informing about the flourishing ponzi firms in the state, there have been police complaints, but she chose not to pay heed to them," said Dasmunshi adding that Banerjee deliberately chose to ignore the warnings to secure her party's interests.

The Congress, which Saturday took out a rally in the city to demand a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the scam, accused Banerjee of shielding the guilty.

"She is shying away from a CBI probe because she knows such a probe will bring out the unholy nexus of Trinamool with Saradha. If it is probed by a state agency, she will be successful in shielding those guilty," state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said.