Efforts on to silence Saradha boss: Left Front

Expressing doubts about the West Bengal government's investigation of the Saradha Group chit fund scam, the Left Front Wednesday claimed there might be efforts to "silence" arrested scam kingpin Sudipta Sen.

"We have reasons to believe that there might be all out efforts to silence Sudipta Sen. So many influential people are involved in the scam. The way the administration is being presurised to hush up the matter, we have our apprehensions," leader of opposition in the state assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra told mediapersons here.

Mishra, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member, demanded a daily medical bulletin on Sen, who is now behind bars and facing prosecution for cheating and conspiracy.

"There is an urgent need to put special emphasis on the safety and security of Sen and others who are now in police custody," said Mishra.

Mishra accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of attempting to hush up the "biggest" financial scam to rock the state.

"Despite the involvement of so many big names in the scam, so far only two people have been arrested. The way this government is progressing with the investigation, its attitude is amply clear," said Mishra,

He added that the central government's intervention in the matter was imperative.

"Several MPs and ministers are involved. Have they been arrested or questioned? Are the national and international angles to the scam being probed? We don't see the probe making any headway. That's why we met the president and the prime minister seeking their intervention," added Mishra.

Saradha Group CEO Sen and two of his close aides and company directors Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Kumar Chauhan were arrested April 23 from Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir.

The arrests came days after the group collapsed, unable to repay lakhs of depositors - most of them poor people from villages and small towns - who had parked their hard earned money with its companies, lured by the promise of huge returns.

A number of agents and depositors of Saradha and similar chit fund companies have committed suicide, while offices of a large number of such dubious concerns operating in the state have been attacked.