File photo: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Trinamool Congress today received a letter from the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI seeking details of its income and expenses from 2011 to 2014. Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee confirmed the receipt of the letter in Kolkata this evening and said the party would reply in due time.
But Mr Chatterjee slammed the BJP and CBI on the issue - the BJP for misusing the CBI to target the Trinamool and the CBI for failing to retain its impartiality. "Attempts to embarrass the Partha Chatterjee led Trinamool by using the CBI as a front will not work. The BJP will get nothing in Bengal," Mr Chatterjee said.
Taking a dig at the BJP's point man for Bengal, Mr Chatterjee added, "BJP state leaders who are talking to us have told us that Siddharth Nath Singh is also being investigated for his insurance business. How far will that investigation go?"
Mr Chatterjee also said, the party's accounts are regularly submitted to the Income Tax department and to the Election Commission. "When did the CBI become the neta and begin asking political parties for their accounts. Have they asked the BJP or the CPM?" Mr Chatterjee said.
The CBI letter and the party's reaction come on a day the Supreme Court told the CBI to continue its investigation into all chit fund related scams in Bengal, Tripura and Assam. The CBI had pleaded it did not have the manpower to handle all the cases and requested that states be asked to set up their own special investigation teams into the smaller scams.
But the Supreme Court said, "If we modify our order, it will dilute the intensity of the investigation. If you were to leave out large number of cases, you may not go anywhere near the larger conspiracy and those involved in the scam. There is no time limit, you probe the cases in a staggered manner stage by stage and take the assistance of the local police. We want the larger conspiracy to be unearthed."
The top court's focus on the larger conspiracy may discomfit the Trinamool. One of the queries by the CBI in its letter today is allegedly about the sale of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's paintings to the Saradha chit fund group boss Sudipto Sen. PM Narendra Modi had raised questions about the sale in his election campaign last year. Mr Sen allegedly bought a painting by Ms Banerjee for Rs 1.86 crore.
The CBI had sent a similar letter to the Trinamool on March 5. That letter had been addressed to Mukul Roy who had just lost his post as All-India general secretary. Mr Roy had said he was unable to provide the details sought. This time, the CBI is believed to have addressed the letter to the new general secretary, Trinamool MP Subrata Bakshi.