IANS/Kolkata

Police yesterday questioned a Trinamool Congress MP over a multi-billion rupee chit fund scandal a day after he raised the banner of revolt against the party leadership.
Though Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh did not link the summons from the police with his attack on the party leadership, he said a “conspiracy” has been hatched against him by those involved in the Saradha scam.
“A conspiracy has been hatched against me by those who are involved in the scam. But who all are behind the conspiracy I can’t say. I am ready to face any probe. I have full confidence in the police, the detective department and (Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee,” Ghosh told reporters after a four-hour questioning.
This is the second time that Ghosh has been questioned over the scam. He was earlier summoned by the police on April 29, days after the biggest financial scandal in West Bengal broke out.
Ghosh said he got a call on Friday night from Bidhanagar deputy commissioner (detective department).
“I have come here in response to the phone call. I am prepared to fully co-operate with the police. I had said earlier that I am prepared to come whenever they call me,” he said.
Ghosh on Friday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Saradha scam where thousands of small depositors lost their life’s savings by parking their hard-earned funds in the company’s schemes lured by high interest rates.
Saradha Group boss Sudipta Sen and his aides are now behind bars after the company closed shop in April unable to pay back the depositors, triggering a spate of suicides by agents and investors and protests across the state.
Ghosh headed Saradha’s media arm until April, and his name also figured in a letter written to the CBI by Sen on April 6 accusing several high-profile Trinamool Congress and Congress leaders of complicity in the scam.
He said he asked for the CBI probe after facing political attack over the scam.
On Friday, at a blood donation camp, Ghosh criticised the party leadership alleging he was being made a victim of the Saradha controversy by those involved with the scam and apprehended he could be killed by those trying to hush up the issue.
“The burden of the Saradha scam has been put on my shoulders. Those involved are trying to hush it up by firing from my shoulders. But I won’t let them do so,” he said.
The Trinamool MP also questioned the honesty of the leadership, saying: “There is a limit to the image of honesty.”
With chief minister Banerjee being regularly touted as a “symbol of honesty” in Trinamool posters and banners, there was no doubt who Ghosh’s target was.
Ghosh, and two other actor-turned-MPs - Satabdi Roy and Tapas Pal - had shared the dais at the camp with rebel party legislator Shikha Mitra and her husband Somen Mitra.
Trinamool national general secretary Mukul Roy said the party’s disciplinary committee has decided to send a show cause notice to Ghosh, Pal and Satabdi Roy for anti-party comments.
Ghosh claimed he was yet to receive any such letter from the party.
This is not the first time that Banerjee has had problems with her MPs. Singer-turned Lok Sabha MP from Jadavpur Kabir Suman has been a constant irritant, composing several songs and parodies criticising the state government.
Another MP, Dinesh Trivedi, who was made railway minister in 2009, found himself at the wrong end of Banerjee’s fury after he proposed all-round fair hikes in the budget and got the axe.