The Calcutta High Court on Monday (28 September) directed the West Bengal government to submit documents pertaining to the Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen Commission set up to probe the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam. The commission headed by Sen – a former chief justice of Allahabad High Court – was set up by the Mamata Banerjee government in 2013 to indemnify the depositors and to identify those involved in scam. The panel set up with a corpus of Rs.500 crore, was wound up in October 2014.
Also see: Saradha scam- SEBI attaches Saradha’s property to recover over Rs.774.3 crore.
The division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi made the order while hearing a public interest litigation filed by social activist Subir Dey, seeking to know the recommendations of the commission as well as the details of the money dispersed by it.
“The state government has been directed to submit before the court all the documents pertaining to the commission by Oct 5, when the matter will come up for hearing again,” said the petitioner’s counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.
The opposition Left Front, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have all been demanding the Commission’s report be made public.
Probing the Saradha scam which came to light in April 2013, the CBI has made several high profile arrests including the likes of West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra, former union minister Matang Sinh, suspended Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh among others.
