Saradha scam probe: SIT member appears before CBI

Kolkata: Pallab Kanti Ghosh, a member of the Special Investigation Team formed by the West Bengal government to probe the 2013 Saradha money laundering scam, appeared before the CBI Wednesday.

Ghosh, a retired IPS officer, arrived at the CBI office at Salt Lake for interrogation. The central agency wrote a letter to the West Bengal director general of police on August 18 for a meeting with the SIT members between August 21 and 25.

“We want to proceed with (investigation into) the Saradha scam for which the CBI sought a meeting with the members of the SIT,” an agency spokesperson said. He said the purpose of the meeting is to plug gaps hampering the investigation.

The West Bengal government had formed the SIT in 2013 with officers drawn from the state’s CID and Kolkata Police. The Supreme Court ordered a probe into the multi-crore-rupee Saradha scam and transferred the case to CBI in 2014.

Thousands of investors were left in the lurch by the scam and it led to the arrest of many leaders and ministers of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress. All of them are now out on bail. Saradha group founder Sudipta Sen and his associate Debjani Mukherjee, arrested in 2013 from Kashmir, are in custody.