The money collection scam in West Bengal took a curious turn on Saturday with the arrest of suspended Trinamool Congres leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh.
A journalist-turned-politician, Ghosh was the CEO of the vast media empire of Saradha Group – one of the most prominent Ponzi scheme operators from Kolkata that had gone burst earlier this year.
The episode coincided with thecollapse of severtal Ponzi schemes spread across the East and North-East, which wiped out crores in savings of the duped investors.
Known in popular parlance as ‘Chit Funds’, Ponzi operators started collecting money — using multi-level marketing techniques — promising unrealistic returns, from the beginning of the last decade.
But, they grew exponentially, both in size and social clout since 2010, when power started tilting in favour of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.
Ponzi owners started opening plush offices in the city; generated no less than half the advertisement revenue for vernacular TV channels and owned large media houses, arguably to buy protection. Banerjee’s win in the 2011 Assembly elections strengthened the trend.
Saradha Group came at the forefront at this juncture. With large media operations — managed by Ghosh — the Group suddenly emerged as the most important propaganda machine for the Mamata Banerjee Government.
The presence of top Trinamool functionaries in Saradha sponsored events and, liberal Group contributions to events organised by the State Government or important functionaries in the government, fuelled talk of the closeness between the two sides.
Sacrificial lamb
And, throughout this period, Ghosh was one of the closest aides of Banerjee.
The bond was so strong that even after the collapse of Saradha and several police complaints against Ghosh for his alleged involvement in the scam, Banerjee openly came out in his support.
She blamed ‘sections of the media’ for spreading a canard against a journalist (Kunal Ghosh). Ghosh, who repeatedly claimed that he was innocent , expressed complete faith in Banerjee. “I will go by the decisions of Mamata Banerjee,” Ghosh said when a section within the party demanded that he resign as the Member of Parliament.
But, things started taking a different turn beginning September 20 this year when Ghosh (and a few other Trinamool MPs) turned a non-political event organised by rebel Trinamool MP, Somen Mitra, into a platform of revolt against the party leadership.
Ghosh reportedly indicated wider involvement of the Trinamool leadership in the money collection scam. The party, he felt, was trying to make Ghosh a sacrificial lamb, so as to protect its public image.
Party insiders claim Ghosh was particularly training his guns on a top Trinamool leader and a trusted aide of Banerjee, with regard to party finances.
Kunal Ghosh was on a sticky wicket as the Saradha Chief Sudipta Sen accused him of foul play. In a detailed disclosure, Sen accused Ghosh (and one more Trinamool MP) of receiving huge payments for “buying him (Sen) protection” and wasting money on costly media buy-outs.
Tightening noose
However, Ghosh maintained that he was managing the editorial side of Saradha’s media business and, in successive media statements since , hinted at conspiracy to make him a scapegoat.
But the September 20 outburst did not augur well for Ghosh, as he was soon after summoned by the West Bengal Police for interrogation. Ghosh too had by then become more and more vocal against his party.
Finally, on Thursday evening (the night before he was arrested) he directly accused the top leadership of Trinamool for their alleged involvement in the scam.
Having returned from another round of interrogation at the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate – which is investigating the Saradha scam – Ghosh claimed that he would write to the Prime Minister demanding immediate handover of the probe to CBI.
“In have been asking from day one: Where did the money go? Police has no answer to this,” he said, adding that the real culprits behind the scam were left scot-free. His demand for a CBI enquiry was immediately supported by the Opposition Left Front.
What next?
With Ghosh now in police custody, the Opposition in West Bengal is pinning its hopes on his confession to the court and the future course of the legal battle.
If Kunal Ghosh can substantiate his claims, the Saradha money collection scam may emerge as a game-changer in West Bengal politics.