Sudip Roy Barman
Sudip Roy Barman

Opposition BJP has demanded a CBI interrogation of Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar along with his ministerial colleagues into the multi-crore non-banking financial companies (NBFC) scam in the state and arrest them if found guilty.

BJP legislator Sudip Roy Barman speaking to reporters said, “CBI should immediately interrogate the chief minister and if found guilty he should be booked. We are demanding for his arrest.”

The BJP leader alleged that the chief minister and his ministers have not revealed the actual amount of money involved in the Rose Valley chit fund so that CBI does not take-up the case and investigate into it.

Sudip questioned, “Why are they revealing the amount as Rs 35000 crores now?  Why did not they mention this while referring the case to the CBI?”

Sudip said despite their demands for resending the case to the CBI due to the increase in the volume of money, the chief minister was loath to resend the case to the CBI.

Drawing reference to the incident of arrest of West Bengal minister Madan Mitra, Sudip Roy Barman affirmed that since the chief minister had committed the crime he would have to suffer and go to that place where Madan Mitra had to go.

He said, “On behalf of the BJP we strongly demand the CBI to answer all these queries which we have just narrated before you.”

Barman said that BJP had formed a questionnaire for the CBI to interrogate CM. He said, “On behalf of lakhs and lakhs of account holders who invested in chit funds especially the Rose Valley and also other chit fund companies, we have prepared a questionnaire which needs to be answered by the Chief Minister himself. He is answerable to people of the state and the answer is to be obtained by the CBI through proper investigation.”

Manik Sarkar, who is considered one of the cleanest chief ministers of the country, had to face humiliation on the last day of the ninth assembly following finance minister Bhanulal Saha’s acceptance in the House that instead of Rs 35 crores monetary involvement in the Rose Valley case and as uploaded in the state portal the actual money involved is Rs 35,000 crore.

Meantime, the CBI, has already grilled Tripura minister Bijita Nath in related to Rose Valley scam and the state government has formed a SIT to investigate into the chit fund issue.