Saradha scam: Congress accuses Himanta & stages walkout from Assam Assembly

February 4: The high voltage CBI versus Mamata Banerjee show-off which erupted on Sunday evening continued till Monday. Amid sloganeering, both the Houses of Parliament were also adjourned till tomorrow. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee since then has sat on a dharna. A CBI team tried to enter the residence of Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to interrogate him in the Saradha ponzi scam. Speaking during the dharna, CM Mamata trained guns on Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. She alled Sarma of being involved in the Saradha scam.

The effect of this standoff was also seen during the Budget Session of Assam legislative Assembly. Mariani MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi later told reporters outside the Assembly that as the Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami got up to address the members on Monday, MLA Kurmi stood up to raise the point of order over Sarma’s alleged involvement in multi-crore Saradha scam which was outrightly rejected by the Speaker. This led to a huge uproar. It was on this issue that the opposition Congress staged a walkout during the Budget Session of Assam Assembly.

An umbrella company with 200 private players, Saradha Group in West Bengal was alleged of cheating more than a million investors by running Ponzi schemes. The scam, which came to light in April 2013, was worth over Rs 10,000 crore. Following the unearthing of the scam, the state government set up a Rs 500 crore relief fund for small investors who had put money in the scheme, to prevent them from going bankrupt. On April 23, 2013, Chairman and MD Sudipta Sen, along with Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chauhan, were arrested from Kashmir. Allegedly several political leaders received financial support from Saradha Group.