Whatever happened to Saradha scam probe in Assam, asks Congress

Guwahati, Feb 4 (IANS) A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confronted the CBI over the probe into multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam, the opposition Congress in Assam on Monday questioned the details of the probe regarding the Saradha scam in Assam.

Senior Congress leader and former Minister Pradyut Bordoloi on Monday said that while the probe has started in Assam and some prominent people have already been interrogated, the probe was stopped after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in Assam in 2016.

"The CBI had interrogated the Assam Finance Minister in the past and raided his house in Guwahati. However, things changed after he joined the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in 2015. Ever since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, there has been no action in Assam regarding the multi-crore scam," Bordoloi told the media here.

"Is the CBI trying to protect the perpetrators of the chit fund scam in Assam? The agency has become a puppet in the hand of BJP," said Bordoloi, adding that former Director General of Assam police (DGP) Shankar Baruah shot himself dead in Guwahati after the interrogators started investigating the case.

"CBI had raided Baruah's house in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam a few days before he shot himself," Bordoloi said.

The former Minister said that the BJP parliamentary board in 2014 had come out with a list of allegations mentioning water supply scam from Goa to Guwahati.

"While the properties of former Goa Minister Digambar Kamat was attached, investigation has not made any headway in Assam since 2016," he said, adding that the CBI is being used for political black-mailing now.