Bengal police hand over four trunks of Saradha chit fund-related files to CBI

Kolkata, May 31 (IANS) West Bengal police handed over four trunks full of files and documents related to the Saradha chit fund scam investigation to the CBI officials here on Friday, a source in the central investigation agency said.

An officer from Bidhannagar Police, R.I. Mollah, on Friday brought in two trunks to the CBI's Kolkata office CGP Complex where files pertaining to the Saradha case were stored, the source said.

Two more such trunks were brought to the agency's office here on Thursday following the interrogation of Bengal IPS officer Arnab Ghosh, who was a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police department that initially probed the multi-crore rupees ponzi scam case before the CBI took over.

According to the source, the officer who brought in the files claimed that the documents were not submitted and CBI did not ask for them specifically.

The documents are believed to be seized by the SIT team from the Saradha head office in Kolkata's Midland Park during the initial stage of investigation.

The central agency had grilled IPS Ghosh for more than 16 hours on Wednesday and Thursday about the progress of the investigation by the SIT and about the seizure made during that time, a part of which had allegedly not been handed over to the CBI.

Ghosh, however, refused to comment after his interrogation on Thursday.

"I have come here to respond to the notice sent to me by the agency. That's it," he had said while refusing to talk about the documents submitted to the CBI.

Ghosh and a number of other Bengal police officers, including the first investigation officer of the Saradha case, have been interrogated by the CBI this week.

The agency had also summoned former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar but he sent a letter seeking seven-day time as he was on leave.

The CBI is yet to issue a fresh summon to Kumar.