Saradha boss now denies links with Mamata regime

The Saradha chit fund scam's suspected kingpin Sudipta Sen who earlier had reached out to the CBI accusing West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress of complicity in the swindle, has now approached the court opposing probe by the central agency.

Sen, now behind bars, has not only filed an affidavit in the Calcutta High Court expressing faith in the state government's investigation as opposed to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, but also asserted that that he never had any links with the Mamata Banerjee regime.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya Thursday raised the issue before a Calcutta High Court division bench hearing a public interest litigation demanding a CBI probe in the scam.

"When a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the state government is probing the matter, there is no need for a probe by the CBI," Sen was quoted as saying in the affidavit by Bhattacharya, one of the advocates pleading for the PIL, in the court.

Sen, who in his April 6 letter to the CBI had named among others, two Trinamool MPs of "fleecing, coercing and blackmailing" him, now has denied any involvement of any member of the ruling Trinamool.

The Saradha boss has also asked that all the first information reports lodged against him be compiled and SIT should probe the matter under the supervision of Justice Shyamal Sen Commission - constituted by Banerjee following the scam.

"Why is an accused speaking so vociferously against an investigation agency?" argued Bhattacharya, before the court while emphasising on the need for a central agency to probe the scam.