Taking potshots at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the Saradha chit-fund scam and the Burdwan blast, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Sunday appealed to the people here to vote for change and development in the state.
The actor-turned politician resigned from the Upper House citing health reasons.
Saradha kingpin Sudipta Sen had alleged in his purported letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation that Kunal Ghosh and TMC Rajya Sabha member Srinjay Bose had blackmailed him, and he was forced to pay hefty amounts to them.
Also directed the company not make any financial transaction till further orders.
The CBI action came a day after the agency filed its second charge sheet in the case alleging that former director general (state armed police) and Trinamool Vice President Rajat Majumdar and East Bengal Club official Debabrata Sarkar were beneficiaries of the money collected through chit fund scam.
Even as the crackdown on Saradha Group involved in the chit fund scam continues, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity, a leading NGO in Assam, on Thursday staged a mass demonstration in front of the deputy commissioner's office in Guwahati.
In further trouble for the chit fund scam-hit Saradha group of Kolkata, the Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case to probe the allegations of financial irregularities by numerous depositors against it.
Pulling no punches in her attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly pursuing 'political vendetta' against the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday charged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was being used as a 'political tool' by the National Democratic Alliance government and was functioning as 'a department of the Prime Minister's Office'.
On the back foot over the chit fund scam in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress on Thursday raised questions over the role of a senior Chennai-based lawyer who is married to a Congress union minister.
The apex court had last month handed over the case to CBI and asked the state governments to provide all logistical help to the CBI team probing the matter.
The agency has also called former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh to Shillong on February 10.
State transport and sports minister Madan Mitra -- whose name has reportedly propped up in CBI investigation in Saradha -- and textile minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was earlier quizzed by ED in this case, are now at the receiving end of a public snub of the party leadership.
A CBI team from New Delhi will arrive in Assam on Tuesday to initiate investigations into duping cases reported against chit fund companies in Assam, reports K Anurag
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A bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir also issued notice to other state governments and the Centre on the petitioners' pleas for empowering Securities and Exchange Board of India to regulate chit fund schemes in the country.
Union Rural Development Secretary L C Goyal is tipped to take over the post
The agency, which looks into white collar crimes and violations of companies law, investigated more than 60 companies in this regard.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, who is on two-day visit to West Bengal to address the party cadre said at a rally that party wants a huge victory in the 2016 assembly elections in Kolkata.
Announcing the decision, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters at Writers' Buildings that the decision was taken following appeal by employees of Tara News and Tara Muzic channels for government intervention.
The West Bengal government on Thursday decided to take over two television channels of scam-tainted Saradha Group, which are facing closure.
Unfazed by the controversy over his earlier remarks, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Friday linked the Burdwan blast accused to Trinamool Congress and challenged the party chief Mamata Banerjee to say they are innocent.
A team of CBI officers reached his residence in south Kolkata's Chetla area along with a large contingent of central forces in the morning, officials said.
A city court on Friday remanded suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh to seven days' judicial custody after he dramatically recused his lawyer from speaking for him and then pleaded for either bail or CBI custody to 'assist' the agency in its Saradha chit fund scam probe.
The top court will hear the probe agency's applications on Tuesday.
Accusing the BJP of trying to poach TMC MLAs by attempting to bribe them, Banerjee, without naming anyone, said some people are acting as fence-sitters who are under the illusion that the saffron party might come to power in the state.
"It will throw some light on the investigation," he said.
Apart from them, Chidambaram's wife -- Nalini -- has been chargesheeted by the CBI in the Saradha chit-fund scam for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.4 crore.
The Rajya Sabha MP, who is also a spokesperson of West Bengal's ruling party, was asked to appear before a CBI team in the first week of August, officials said on Friday.
The Director told his team of officers to expedite the probe as it involved the trust of common people as well as the Supreme Court in CBI.
Suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh, who was arrested on November 23 in connection with the Saradha Group chit fund scam, was today granted bail in the first among several cases lodged against him.
In a letter the Central Bureau of Investigation dated April 6, West Bengal's chit fund scam accused and Saradha Group promoter Sudipta Sen has accused Trinamool Congress Members of Parliament Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose of blackmailing him for huge sums of money.
Attacking Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday said that "even a butcher is shy" of the BJP leader who was aiming to become the Prime Minister of the country.
Justice Tirath Singh Thakur was on Thursday sworn in as 43rd Chief Justice of India by President Pranab Mukherjee at an elegant function in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Congress vice president said Bengal which was once industrious has turned into a "graveyard" in Trinamool Congress's rule.
A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said that the scams have inter-state ramification and directed the investigation be handed over to the central agency from the state authorities.
With the Trinamool Congress government stepping into the third year of its rule, it is facing its biggest challenge in the multi-crore chit fund scam which has hit lakhs of people across the state.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday demanded a CBI probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam in West Bengal and asked the state government to confiscate all properties of Saradha Group to pay off thousands of small investors left in the lurch.
Meanwhile, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said at the meeting that the central bank brass discussed strengthening the state- level coordination committees so that unauthorised deposit taking can be dealt with in a better way.
Rejecting the demand for sacking Transport Minister Madan Mitra arrested in Saradha scam case, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday stepped up her attack on Narendra Modi saying "if image is a proof of criminal conspiracy, then the Prime Minister should be arrested for Sahara scam."
A Kolkata sub-divisional magistrate's court on Thursday sent Ponzi king Sudipto Sen and two other accused to police custody for 14 days over their role in the Saradha chit fund scam. Media reports said the bail pleas of the three swindlers had been rejected and that they were charged for fraud and criminal breach of trust under Sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
The 54-page document tabled in Parliament detailed how the Modi-government pull the economy from being counted among the most fragile-five in the world to being the fasted growing and the most attractive investment destination.
