Saradha issue being raised when UPA govt has only 20 days left

Questioning the credibility of Singhvi for alleging that the Mamata Banerjee government was trying to shield partymen involved in the scam, Mitra said, “Ask him why he had to resign from a parliamentary committee and post of spokesperson in April 2012.”

Stating that the CBI had 2,300 cases in hand of which 458 cases were in West Bengal, he said that it could not give justice in the Chota Angria episode on January 4, 2001, when a number of TMC supporters were burnt alive allegedly by the CPI(M).

The CBI also could not do justice in the police firing in Nandigram in March 14, 2007, when 14 people were shot dead as also the January 7, 2001, firing allegedly by CPI(M) cadres in Netai, which left nine dead, he said.

Mitra said that a party which was saddled by countless scams including coal, 2G and helicopter among others running into lakhs of crores of rupees was speaking about inaction by the state government.

Had the Centre cleared the Bill passed in the state Assembly aimed at curbing ponzi activities, he said, “We could have engaged all the state machinery to investigate.”

West Bengal, he said, had set up a commission and was the only state which had compensated 3.95 lakh persons who invested up to Rs 10,000 in the Saradha scam and added that those who deposited Rs 20,000 would be compensated soon.

He also spoke about the arrest of Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen from Kashmir and a TMC Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh in the scam.