Trinamool ex-functionary Asif Khan gets five-day police remand

Trinamool Congress' former functionary Asif Khan, arrested for alleged cheating, was Saturday sent to five days in police custody, hours after being released from a hospital where he was admitted after complaining of illness soon after his detention.

The chief judicial magistrate of Barasat court sent Khan to five days in police remand, though the government pleader prayed for 10 days' custody.

Earlier, a medical board formed by the state-run Nil Ratan Sarkar Medical College and hospital, which met during the day, adjudged Khan fit for release after a thorough examination.

Khan was hospitalised Thursday night when he complained of dizziness and chest pain after his arrest.

A heavy security ring was thrown around Khan as he was put in a police vehicle on way to the Barasat court. The same security drill was seen as Khan was taken inside the CJM court.

A businessman, Khan has been alleging complicity of many Trinamool leaders in the multi-crore-rupee Saradha scam.

He was nabbed Thursday night and two cases of cheating were initiated against him.

"Two businessmen have claimed that Khan cheated them of Rs.20 crore and Rs.8 crore respectively. We have frozen a bank account of Khan containing Rs.3.14 crore," Deputy Commissioner of Police K.P. Barui said Friday.

Once a close associate of Trinamool national general secretary and former railway minister Mukul Roy, Khan severed all ties with the party in September and floated his own political outfit, Tahafaz-e-Islam, after the CBI grilled him in connection with the Saradha scam.

Khan also claimed to have seen at the residence of a top Trinamool leader and former union minister the purported letter sent last year to the CBI by Saradha promoter and scam kingpin Sudipta Sen in which he had named many influential people.

He also alleged that he had received threats for supporting the CBI probe.