| Thursday , December 18 , 2014 |
CBI's Madan posers for Sen- Agency plans to seek court nod to crosscheck information |
| Our Special Correspondent |
 Sudipta Sen The central agency is also preparing to collect more details on Mitra's alleged transactions with Sen. Mitra, who was arrested on Friday and is in police custody, has apparently told interrogators that only Sen could say why the Saradha chief withdrew certain amounts of cash at regular intervals through cheques drawn on "self" and if he had ever handed over packets of cash to the sports and transport minister's former confidential assistant Bapi Karim. "The details of the daily business reports of the Saradha Group reveal that Sen had issued several 'self' cheques, which suggest they were meant for cash withdrawals," said a senior CBI officer. "On a few occasions, it appears Karim met Sen within a few days of such withdrawals." When the CBI recorded Karim's statement in August, he apparently said he had visited Saradha's Midland Park headquarters late in the night on several occasions at the behest of Mitra and left with cash in brown envelops. The driver of the car Karim had used made a similar claim while deposing before the CBI. When CBI sleuths confronted Mitra with Karim's claims, the minister reportedly denied them. Mitra apparently told the interrogators that if Karim had collected money from Saradha's office, it was for his personal use. Sources said the minister had even challenged the interrogators to prove that Karim had acted on his instructions.  Madan Mitra Sen, now in judicial custody, has been lodged in Alipore central jail for the past few months. He was produced in a Siliguri court today in connection with a Saradha case. The CBI can appeal in Alipore court for permission to question Sen only after he returns. According to the rule, an investigating officer can meet an accused in judicial custody only after seeking a court's permission. If the Alipore court agrees to the CBI's plea, the investigating officer will meet Sen in a designated interrogation room of the Alipore jail in the presence of a prison official. "Since Mitra has been charged in the Saradha Realty case, the appeal will have to be made in the Alipore court, where the FIR has been lodged and the case is being heard," said a senior officer of Alipore police station. Sen didn't mention Mitra in his purported letter to the CBI. One of the reasons that prompted the CBI to summon minister Mitra is a suspicion that several names were omitted from the purported letter, sources had said last week. The CBI sources had confirmed claims that the letter was not penned by Sen but by someone else who acted under instructions and took care to omit some names while describing how the multi-crore bubble went bust. |