People found close to TMC arrested in Saradha scam, AG tells SC

CBI told the Supreme Court Tuesday that its probe into the Saradha scam led to the arrest of "people found close to or connected" to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal.

The submission was made by Attorney General K K Venugopal before a bench, comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna, which was hearing the CBI plea seeking direction against the Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar who has avoided to join the investigation.

Venugopal narrated the legal proceedings since 2014 and said all cases relating to the Chit Fund scam in West Bengal were transferred to the CBI.

"Before that, the state had itself has appointed a SIT. Between April, 2014 and when the judgement was pronounced in 2017, we have collected material and proceeded to make arrests. some of them were People found close to or connected to the TMC, the ruling party," he told the bench.

He said CBI issued summons to Kumar, who was the functional head of the SIT as the material handed to the agency was not complete.

"So we sent summons and then three notices. When he failed to respond, we wrote to the DGP who is the head of the SIT", the top law officer submitted.

Making submission on the alleged destruction of evidence and other apprehensions, the attorney general said: "We had serious doubts as to the documentation handed over to us."