Saradha scam: CBI grills Mohun Bagan, East Bengal officials

Probing the multi-crore-rupee Saradha Group scam, the CBI Thursday grilled officials of city football giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, mostly about the clubs' sponsorship deals with the tainted group.

Sumon Ghosh of Mohun Bagan, talking to media persons later, said senior club official and Trinamool Congress MP Srinjoy Bose played a role in clinching the deal with Saradha.

Ghosh, who along with East Bengal's Swapan Ball, was grilled for nearly four hours, said the Saradha deal concerned only the football team and not the entire club.

"The entire board of directors is usually responsible for any such deal but Srinjoy Bose had business terms (with Saradha) which might have played a role," he said.

"The CBI wanted to know about the Saradha sponsorship deal and we told them that the deal was not with the entire club but concerned only the football team," added Ghosh.

Bose, a Rajya Sabha member from the Trinamool, has been already interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation as well as Enforcement Directorate (ED), which too is probing the scam.

Following a directive by the agency, officials of both the clubs deposited documents pertaining to their sponsorship deals with Saradha as well as other financial transactions.

Besides repeatedly grilling a number of officials from both the clubs, the CBI has arrested East Bengal official Debabrata Sarkar who allegedly extorted money from Saradha chief and scam kingpin Sudipta Sen.

Meanwhile the ED, which sealed bank accounts of both the clubs in September, refused to entertain their requests for relief.

Office-bearers from both clubs had requested ED officials to defreeze their accounts enabling them to make payments to their respective players.

An ED official said the clubs' requests have been turned down.