Ex-Trinamool functionary Asif Khan arrested in cheating case

Former Trinamool Congress functionary Asif Khan, who fell out with the party after he alleged complicity of the top leadership in the Saradha chit fund scam, was late Thursday night arrested in connection with an alleged case of cheating.

Khan, a city based businessman, was nabbed from the Tiljala area in South east Kolkata by personnel of the Bidhannagar police Commissionerate and taken to the New Town police station, police said.

He will be presented in court Friday.

Once a close associate of Trinamool Congress national general secretary and former railway minister Mukul Roy, Khan has been alleging the involvement of the top party leadership in the multi-crore rupee scandal.

Khan has also claimed to have seen Sen's purported letter last year to the CBI in which he had named several influential people, at the residence of a top Trinamool leader and former union minister. He also alleged that he has been receiving threats for supporting the CBI probe into the scam.

In September, Khan - a former Trinamool convenor in Uttar Pradesh - severed all ties with the party and floated his own political outfit Tahafaz-e-Islam after the CBI grilled him in connection with the Saradha scam.

"Trinamool cannot become clean until the CBI submits its charge sheet and says none of its leaders are involved in it. Unless the CBI gives it, the Trinamool cannot be given a clean chit," Khan had then said.