WB sets up Rs 500cr relief fund for Saradha investors

The Saradha chitfund scam snowballed into a political controversy with names of two Trinamool Congress MPs figuring in a letter purportedly written to CBI by the the collapsed company's chairman Sudipto Sen as Congress and CPI(M) accused the party of having links with the group. In a damage control measure, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the setting up of a Rs 500-crore relief fund for the investors allegedly duped by the group which has gone bust.

Obliquely referring to TMC MPs Kunal Ghosh, who had recently resigned as the CEO of the Saradha Media Group which had owned a TV news channel, and party MP Srinjoy Bose, editor of a Bengali daily, Banerjee said "one journalist is being targetted ... There are so many journalists ... there is no use of identifying one channel and one newspaper. "If any MP of Trinamool Congress has committed an offence, the law will take its own course," she said, accusing CPI(M) of politicking over a people's issue.

Srinjoy Bose, on his part, said his paper did have a professional tieup with 'Channel 10' TV in 2010 for providing editorial support but not with the Saradha chit fund company or any other ancillary. Asked about the antecedents of the Saradha Group chairman, he replied "we did not know that the man was a fraud." He also said there was no relationship between his party and the Saradha Group.

Meanwhile, Sudipta Sen and two other Saradha officials were flown to Kolkata after the West Bengal police were granted four days transit remand by a court in Ganderbal in Jammu and Kashmir following their arrest yesterday.