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The prospect of having embarrassed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah sent senior ministers of the Narendra Modi-led government into a tizzy on Wednesday.
Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh told Lok Sabha in a written reply that the probe by central agencies was yet to reveal any links between Saradha ponzi scheme scam money having financed terror activities in Bangladesh. The statement contradicted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah's claims at a rally in Kolkata on Sunday. Shah had said the scam money went to fund the accidental blasts in Burdwan, which had links with the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh outfit.
Senior ministers and party leaders, including Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and BJP Bengal incharge Siddharth Nath Singh, rushed to clarify to the media that Shah's claim of Saradha scam money funding terror activities was based on media reports in the public domain.
Sources close to minister Jitendra Singh said Saradha scam and Burdwan bomb blast of October 2 were being probed by two separate agencies. The source said the minister's reply in Parliament had been misinterpreted.
"He told Parliament that the matter was under investigation and emphasised that "so far" no transaction to fund terror has been revealed," the source said. Another minister said Shah was referring to the wife of one of the accused in the Burdwan bomb blast having been caught in Bangladesh with money.
Sources also said the question in Parliament was specific to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation and the answer was specific to investigation done by CBI and there may be other investigating agencies such as National Investigation Agency (NIA) inquiring into the case. The NIA is investigating the Burdwan blast. Javadekar said some of the money from the Saradha scam has been traced, some is yet to be traced.
"As far as the Burdwan terror plot is concerned, the investigation is on as to from where they got money. What the minister has said is the status as of today, that conclusive proof is not yet there. But I am very sure both investigations will bring truth to the fore. So Trinamool Congress should not jump and prejudge the enquiry," Javadekar said.
The government and BJP had come under attack from the opposition parties after Singh's reply in Lok Sabha. Trinamool leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay hit out at the BJP president saying: "Amit Shah is basically an uninformed person. He has no knowledge of the subject nor any idea of what he has to say in a public meeting."
