Tapas Paul pleads innocence, says Babul Supriyo involved in scam

Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Paul, who was arrested by the CBI last Friday for his alleged involvement in the Rose Valley Chit fund scam, on Sunday said his innocence will be proved in due course.

"I am innocent. I am not guilty at all. Everything will be proved later," Paul told the reporters while getting into a car of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Odisha's Bhubaneswar after a health check-up in a hospital.

Asked about the allegations that he took financial advantage from the chit fund company, Paul vehemently denied it.

"I deny all the allegations against me. I know for a fact that I haven't taken any monetary advantage from anyone," he said.

Paul alleged that Union minister Babul Supriyo is involved in the multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam.

"Babul Supriyo tricked me into the scam and he is involved in it," he claimed.

"Many other ministers also have links with the multi-crore chit fund scam," Paul added.

The Trinamool Congress leader said that his party stads by him. "My party is with me."

Terming his arrest as "politically motivated", his wife Nandini Paul reiterated his claims, saying the actor-turned-politician was not involved in anything illegal.

"It is definitely politically motivated," Nandini said.

"He hasn't done anything illegal. He worked as a director in a film produced by the Rose Valley and received monthly remuneration by cheque after TDS deduction. I know he hasn't taken any money apart from the remuneration," she said.

Paul was arrested on Friday afternoon by the CBI sleuths from Kolkata after being interrogated for four hours for his alleged links with the ponzy scheme.

He was shifted to Bhubaneswar in the late hours of Friday on transit remand.

The Special Chief Judicial Magistrate's court of the CBI in Bhubaneswar on Saturday allowed the agency to take the Trinamool MP on a three-day remand.

--IANS

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