Rebel Trinamool MP wants to meet Saradha scam mastermind

Rebel Trianmool Congress Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh, who is being grilled in connection with the Saradha Group Chit fund scandal, Thursday said he wanted to meet the scam's alleged mastermind Sudipta Sen in police custody.

"I want to meet Sudipta Sen. I want to meet him in the presence of the police sleuths. The entire meeting should be video recorded," Ghosh told media persons here after another round of quizzing at the Bidhan Nagar Police Commissionerate, which is probing the scam.

The MP, who went straight to the commissionerate after landing at the NSC Bose International Airport on his arrival from Delhi, said he has not received any invitation for the extended general council meeting of the party Sep 30.

"I have not been invited for the meeting, but I would like to go there as a speaker. I would like to make my stand as an accused (in the scam) clear to the party," he said.

The journalist-turned-MP said he rushed to the commissionerate following summons from the Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department) Arnab Ghosh.

"However, the officer was away on some work when I reached his office. Other officers present had some queries, which I answered to the best of my ability," he said.

The MP refused to make an issue out of Arnab Ghosh's absence.

"There is a team associated with the probe. The officers he entrusted with the task of questioning me, were there. Which police officer is asking the question, is not an issue for me. Whoever asks, I am prepared to answer."

Ghosh also refused to hazard a guess on why he was being repeatedly called for grilling, days after lashing out at the party leadership.

"Why they are calling me, and why they are calling me now, I can't answer these queries. As I have said earlier, I will be available whenever they call me. And I will continue to cooperate fully with the probe," he said.

Claiming he was not involved with any chit fund, Ghosh said: "I've stumbled into it as I was working in a particular media house."

Ghosh headed Sen's media business till April this year.

Sen is in police custody after his arrest April 23.

The scandal - the biggest to hit the state - came to light in April when the company closed shop across Bengal, unable to pay back the depositors, mainly poor people in small towns and villages, who had parked their life's savings with the group, lured by the promise of huge returns.

As the company went bust, there was a spate of suicides by agents and investors and protests across the state.