Kolkata: Arrested by Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) in multi-million-rupees Saradha chit fund scam, West Bengal transport minister Madan Mitra’s bail plea was rejected by a city court on Friday following the agency’s assertion the minister may influence and destroy evidence once out on bail.
There was speculation all day that the minister could be granted bail and Srinjoy Bose another Trinamool Congress (TMC) arrested in connection with the scam could be set free next week.
The gloomy minister made a fervent pitch on his health grounds but the court did not grant him reprieve, sending him to judicial custody till January 2. “I am a psychiatric patient and two doctors of the institute of psychiatry are treating me. They (CBI officers) are killing me mentally. Please don’t send me back to police custody. I will die there,” Mitra pleaded.
Earlier, the minister alleged CBI is also coercing him to ‘admit’ that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mukul Roy were also part of the scam. “The sleuths didn’t ask me a single question. Four CBI officers just sat in front of me for hours in turn covering their face with black cloth. They are pressurising me to cough up the names of my party leaders. Sometimes several cops are barging into the room and shouting at me. They are threatening me with dire consequences if I don’t take the name of Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy,” Mitra had told the court.
Claiming that he was suffering from health problems, Mitra also alleged that CBI sleuths were forcefully recording his voice and statements.
CBI lawyers though defended the bail plea saying that the minister is an influential person and may destroy key evidence once out on bail. “He (Mitra) is a very powerful person and once out on bail, he may influence the course of the investigation and tamper with key evidence.”
Mitra is considered to be Banerjee’s right-hand man and his arrest only worsened already sour ties between the BJP and TMC. Rallies were held in Kolkata where the chief minister launched a scathing attack on the BJP, accusing the ruling party of pursuing “political vendetta” against TMC. She also charged the CBI was being used as a “political tool” by the central government and was functioning as “a department of the PMO”.
“We are the only party fighting a battle against BJP, who are trying to bulldoze TMC. That (arrest of WB transport minister Madan Mitra) is political vendetta. BJP are jealous of us [but] democracy cannot be bulldozed or imposed,” Banerjee told Gulf News from New Delhi.
“The attitude which is displayed (by BJP) is dictatorial. TMC will not bow down before anyone, except the people of the country. This is a political fight and it will fight [it] politically and democratically. You cannot stop our voice,” the chief minister added.
