Mamata accuses Himanta of taking Rs.3 crore from Saradha, Himanta denies claim

February 6: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her dharna against CBI raids triggered a fresh controversy by accusing Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of being involved in multi-crore Saradha ponzi scam. Mamata Banerjee during her sit-in-protest trained guns on Sarma and said that she has enough evidence against “Assam deputy chief minister” (Himanta Biswa Sarma).

On Tuesday, Mamata released a letter written by key accused Sudipto Sen to CBI accusing Sarma of taking ‘at least Rs 3 crore’ from him. On page number 11 of the 18-page letter written to CBI, Sen writes, “Another high-level person has dramatically cheated me. He is Mr Hemanta (Himanta) Biswa Sarma. For the last six months, apart one and half years, he has taken from us not less than less Rs 3 crore all by cash and some vouchers have been signed by his office executives by some other means.”

The West Bengal Chief Minister has also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah of “safeguarding” Sarma. She said, “CBI is acting on the instructions of Modi babu (Prime Minister Narendra Modi). The agency is selectively targeting opposition leaders. Those who joined the BJP are safe and those who are raising their voice are facing the wrath. This cannot be tolerated in India. There is an urgent need to save institutions. Why is the CBI not taking action against those BJP leaders who took money from the chit fund companies?”

It needs mention here that Saradha Group chief Sudipto Sen on April 6, 2013 had sent an 18-page letter to the CBI alleging that several top politicians and officials blackmailed him for two years. In the letter Sen listed 22 persons including minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who “used him” to make money.

On the flip side, Himanta Biswa Sarma in a tweet said that he was “only a witness” in the case and the CBI had already examined him.He defended himself by saying that all allegation made by Didi are “frivolous and baseless”.

The frivolous & baseless campaign by @MamataOfficial Didi against me is very painful. I am not fortunate enough like your Police Commissioner. I've joined the investigations and offered my full cooperation as a witness. And all this happened much much before I joined @BJP4India

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 5, 2019

Meanwhile, Congress leader and former power minister Pradyut Bordoloi on February 4th, 2019 slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of not taking actions against Sarma over his alleged involvement in multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. The Congress said that the CBI is trying to protect perpetrators of the chit fund scam in Assam.