Kunal Ghosh not named in chargesheet on Saradha scam

Kolkata: The CBI filed a chargesheet in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam on Tuesday. In a big relief to suspended Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh, the chargesheet did not have the leader’s name as one of the accused in the list. However, the investigating agency did not state whether it has acquitted the leader of all the charges.

The chargesheet was submitted to the Bidhannagar Court on Tuesday. Senior Trinamul Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay was also arrested by CBI for his involvement in the Rose Valley chit fund scam on Tuesday.

The case against Kunal Ghosh was lodged at the Electronic Complex police station against the media wing of Saradha Group, owned by Sudipta Sen in 2013. Mr Sen and his close aide Debjani Mukherjee were booked in the chargesheet under Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to sources, the name of Mr Ghosh did not feature in the list of accused in the chargesheet.

Mr Ghosh was the CEO of Bengal Media, the media company of Saradha, which brought out newspapers and also ran a Bengali news channel. He was granted bail by a division bench of the Calcutta HC in October last year, after he had served over two years in the custody. The CBI earlier chargesheeted Mr Ghosh, Mr Sen and Ms Mukherjee in the Saradha Tours and Travels case in 2014. In its chargesheet in the Saradha Realty case, the CBI booked Mr Ghosh, former TMC minister Madan Mitra and former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose in February.