After facing prison time of 22 months, ex-TMC Minister and prime accused in the Saradha chit fund scam case Madan Mitra was granted bail by the Alipore District Court on 9 September.
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Meanwhile, CBI’s lawyers appealed to the court to reject his bail as he could hamper the investigation process, using his influences.
During two-day long hearing at Alipore Court since Thursday, Madan Mitra’s counsels claimed that their client was not an influential person anymore, as he left cabinet and lost recently concluded Bengal assembly election, and plead for his bail with any condition. The CBI, however, had opposed the bail plea, saying he could still influence the investigation. The court also directed Mitra to surrender his passport to the CBI and appear before the CBI investigating officer once every week. Mitra was arrested on December 12, 2014. “The Sessions Judge has granted bail to Madan Mitra”.
The Saradha scam came to light in March 2014, and investigators had arrested main accused Sudipta Sen, the owner of the Saradha Group of companies and his close associate Debjani Mukherjee in April 2014 from Gulmarg in Kashmir. But the breather had turned out to be brief as the Calcutta High Court cancelled his bail on November 19 on a petition by the investigating agency.
“Mitra has always been with the people and the party and will continue to do so”.
“The CBI has filed several supplementary charge sheets but there was nothing against Mitra”.
CBI counsel K Raghavcharyulu, along with Parth Sarathi Dutta had submitted that it was “not possible at this point to provide evidence but there are material findings against” Madan Mitra, while adding that “there has been suppression of facts”.
He added that as many as 160 companies were floated – 320 branches and 347 bank accounts with 2,21,000 agents and Rs 2,500 crores.
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“The decision will be taken after studying today’s order”, said a CBI counsel. He quoted a popular Bengali proverb “hathir daanth lakh taka (a dead elephant’s tusk is worth lakhs) to state that even if Mitra had lost, his access to witnesses and clout has not diminished”.
