File photo of Saradha Group Chairman Sudipta Sen
In a new twist in the multi-crore Saradha scam, an aide of Saradha Group Chairman Sudipta Sen today named at least two Trinamool MPs and confirmed they held meetings with Mr Sen just days before Saradha collapsed and he fled to Kashmir in April last year.
Arvind Singh Chauhan who was Mr Sen's driver, and later promoted to the post of a director in Saradha Group, said, "On April 5, Mr Sen took me to Nizam Palace to meet Mukul Roy."
"After two or three days - I don't recall the exact date - Mr Shubhendu Adhikari came to meet Mr Sen at night. The meeting last around an hour till about 10 at night," Mr Chauhan added.
Mukul Roy is the general secretary of the Trinamool Congress and he has an office at Nizam Palace in central Kolkata. Shubhendu Adhikari is a Trinamool Lok Sabha MP. The CBI had apparently summoned Mr Adhikari for questioning last week but he has so far denied receiving any summons.
Mr Chauhan, who drove Mr Sen to Kashmir after Saradha collapsed last April, said, "The next night Mr Sen asked me to accompany him as he had some work. And we left. We left Kolkata on 9th. On 9th, Mr Sudipta Sen was with me."
"I am not a conspirator," Mr Chauhan claimed as he left the CBI office in Kolkata today. "I am innocent."
Though there has been a buzz about Mukul Roy's links with Sudipta Sen, this is the first time anyone has named a date when the two met. Arrested Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh had also written about it in the past. In fact, Kunal Ghosh had a verbal battle with Shubhendu Adhikari for alleging the latter had links with Saradha. Mr Chauhan's claims today appear to give weight to Kunal Ghosh's allegations.