Trinamool suspends MP Kunal Ghosh

The Trinamool Congress Saturday announced it has suspended Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh on disciplinary grounds.

"Despite being show caused, Ghosh has continued to speak against the party, lowering and belittling its image. The disciplinary committee met Sep 27 and unanimously decided to suspend him," Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee told media persons here.

Ghosh, who has been grilled by police multiple times in connection with Saradha chit fund scam - the biggest financial scandal to rock West Bengal - lashed out against the party leadership at an event Sep 20, alleging he was being made a scapegoat by those involved in the scam and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.

Two other Lok Sabha members Tapas Pal and Satabdi Roy, who had accompanied Ghosh at the event, too aired their grievances at the forum.

The Trinamool disciplinary committee held a meeting that very day and decided to show cause the trio for their "anti-party" remarks.

Chatterjee, convener of the disciplinary committee, said following the show cause letter, both Pal and Roy wrote to party chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee regretting their act and tendering an apology.

"Both Pal and Roy wrote to the party chairperson seeking apology. They also promised to never repeat such acts. But Ghosh did not stop his anti party activities.

"Rather, he has continued to make derogatory remarks against the party. This is tarnishing the party's image. He did not even respond to the show cause letter," said Chaterjee.

"Ghosh is being suspended from the party with immediate effect until further orders. A formal intimation of the suspension is being sent to him," added Chatterjee.

Reacting to the news, Ghosh accused a section of Trinamool Congress leaders of suspending him "in haste" to keep him away from party workers and supporters and said he has been "punished without a trial".

Ghosh, who earlier headed Saradha's media arm, has made several allegations against his party leaders over the last few days. He even claimed that "three Trinamool Lok Sabha members secretly met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's political adviser Ahmed Patel at a tea party in Delhi".

He also alleged that a Trinamool leader demanding his resignation on the scam had in the past asked for Rs.4 crore from Saradha boss Sudipta Sen.

The scandal 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.

Sen, along with several of his key aides, is now behind bars for allegedly being the scam mastermind.

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