Ministry of External Affairs seeks report from CBI on Saradha's alleged terror link

NEW DELHI: The CBI has told the External Affairs Ministry there has been no indication of Saradha Group's investment funds being diverted to terror groups based in Bangladesh during its probe into the chit fund scam.

CBI sources here said that a response has been dispatched to MEA stating that the agency probe has not revealed any diversion of funds collected by Saradha to Bangladesh-based terror groups.

The response was given after MEA sought a clarification from CBI seeking details of its probe into the scam after reports of the scam money being allegedly pumped into Bangladesh for terror activities surfaced in the media there.

The sources said CBI has been asked to submit its report whether any such issue has cropped up during its probe.

CBI sources, however, clarified that so far they have not encountered any such instance of funds being transferred to any terror group including Jamaat-e-Islami but the probe is still on and nothing conclusive can be said as of now.

They said MEA could be interested in the issue because of the news reports which are getting published in India as well as in Bangladesh.

"We are not aware of all this international terror linkages. No such indication has surfaced in our probe so far. We have not looked into that aspect. We will inform MEA about it," said an official.

The sources said they have got some of the money trail on the basis of which action is being taken by the agency but complete details of investments and fund transfers etc still being looked into.

The CBI sources further said the probe has met a stumbling block because the account books of the group have been "purposefully" removed from the offices of Saradha taking excuse of the mob attack on its offices after news of scam broke out.