Saradha scam- Is probe catching up to Satabdi Roy?

A party organized by Somnath Dutta who was the election agent of Satabdi Roy is under the lens of the Enforcement Directorate. This probe comes in the backdrop of several allegations also being made against Satabdi Roy who is an actress turned Member of Parliament from the Trinamool Congress Party.

Scanner on a party:

This part of the probe being carried out by the Enforcement Directorate may be a needle in the haystack, but it could lead up to something major is what the agency believes.

The fact that Dutta the election agent of Satabdi is alleged to have organized this party is likely to lead to more clues on the money transactions is what the ED alleges.

Sudipto Sen the mastermind of the Saradha scam is said to have funded a party at a big hotel in Kolkata and the job of organizing the same was handed over to Dutta as he had good links in the film industry. The party was organized to mark the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of 2012 and the amount spent by Sen was Rs 2 lakh. On questioning of the hotel staff it was found that the money was transferred to the hotel from a Saradha account.

Where did the remaining amount go?

Investigations have revealed that at least Rs 30 lakh had been spent on the party. However the trail that we have found is only a transfer of Rs 2 lakh which gives room for a further probe to find out where exactly did the rest of the money go.

The culture clan:

Several members of comprising Mamta Banerjee’s culture clan were present at the meeting. Many of these members of the culture clan have come under the radar of investigating agencies probing the Saradha scam.

Although it will not be fair to say that since the event was funded by Sen all those who attended it were part of the scam, it would be still interesting to pull out the links that Dutta has with members of this culture clan.

The allegations against Satabdi Roy:

The ED has been on the trail of Satabdi Roy. It is said that she was on several programmes that were organized by the Saradha group and had even gone on to announce that she was proud to be the ambassador of the group.

However there was a change in her stand once the scam broke out and she went on to state that she was there only as a professional and was not aware that this group was indulging in a scam.

The investigation forward would deal a lot with the brand ambassadors of the Saradha group in a bid to find out if they had any awareness about what was going on.

Sudipto Sen has said in his confession that several celebrities including Satapdi Roy were beneficiaries of Saradha money. Now the ED would want to find out from Dutta who organized the party if the actress turned politician was more than just a brand ambassador for the group.