Kolkata: Actor turned politician and West Bengal ruling Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal, whose two flats in the city were searched by the CBI while raiding Rose Valley Group properties on Wednesday, has offered fullest cooperation to the central investigating agency in the probe.
“I will respond to their (CBI) calls as many times as they do,” the two-time Lok Sabha member told a private TV channel with folded hands.
“They are respected people (CBI) and whenever they will call me I will respond them (CBI),” Pal reiterated.
The anti-corrption unit of CBI probing the money trails of Rose Valley Group, accused of amassing thousands of crore rupees from markets despite objections from money regulatory bodies, while raiding some 47 places across the country also searched two flats of Tapas Pal in south Kolkata on Wednesday.
The frisking of Pal’s flats happened hours after the CBI reported seized documents from Rose Valley boss Gautam Kundu at Hiland Park on EM Byepas on the same day.
Since the TMC MP was not in his flat during the search operations, and was attending the Parliament session, Pal returned on Wednesday night and expecting a summon notice from the CBI to appear at the CGO Complex by any day, sources at the CGO Complex on Friday said.
Meanwhile, Gautam Kundu, the Rose Valley owner, told the same TV channel that Pal was one of the directors of his film division unit.
Pal has reportedly three flats in the same complex, but the CBI had searched only two flats and one was locked from outside.
Pal’s wife Nandini, however, was present during raids. Pal, a two-time Lok Sabha member representing Krisnanagar constituency, told the private TV channel that he was with the film division of Rose Valley for six months only.
Many politicians and influential people have been allegedly involved in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam and Rose Valley Group projects for which the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been investigating following a Supreme Court order.
West Bengal transport minister Madan Mitra, who is also a senior TMC leader, Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh and East Bengal official Debobrata Sarkar, former Union minister Matang Sinh among other arrested are now in jail in the Saradha scam.
Former Rajya Sabha member and Mohun Bagan official Srinjoy Bose and former DGP Rajat Majumdar, who were also arrested, are now out on bail. (UNI)
