Congress demands CBI probe into Saradha chit fund scam

NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday demanded a CBI enquiry into the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam in West Bengal to unearth the truth even as it asserted that no party leader was involved in it.


"We demand a CBI enquiry so that the truth comes out and I will like to say with absolute certainty that no Congress leader's name will come out," party MP from the state Deepa Dashmunshi told reporters outside Parliament.

Her reaction came in wake of reports of some Congress leaders' names being linked to the scam.

Accusing the Trinamool Congress government of shying away from taking responsibility for the scam in which the poor were "looted" of their hard earned money, she said TMC leaders have been seen in several Saradha group programmes promoting the organisation.

Dasmunshi also raised doubt over the Chief Minister's proposal for setting up of a Rs 500 crore relief fund for small and medium depositors, saying that raising Rs 150 crore through imposition of 10 per cent tax on cigarettes was "impossible".

Hundreds of Youth Congress workers, on the other hand, demonstrated outside the SDJM court at Bidhannagar, Kolkata where Saradha chit fund scam accused Sudipta Sen and two other company officials were produced on Thursday following their arrest.

Holding placards, the YC activists demanded strict punishment for Sen. They also accused the Mamata Banerjee government of having links with the Saradha group and demanded action against TMC MPs whose names allegedly figured in the scam.