Calcutta, Nov. 15: CBI director Ranjit Sinha today expressed surprise that the Bengal government hadn’t informed the central agency about a purported suicide note that suspended Trinamul MP Kunal Ghosh had addressed to him.
Calcutta police sources have said the four-page letter by Saradha scam accused Ghosh, now recuperating from an overdose of anti-anxiety pills taken inside his jail cell, sought “immediate action” against certain powerful people, including chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“The local police can’t hide anything from the CBI as we are conducting the Saradha probe under the Supreme Court’s orders,” Sinha said.
“Ghosh is in our custody, so any information relating to him should be shared. If they don’t share information, the matter has to be taken up at a higher level.”
He said the note could add value to the CBI investigation, and that the police should at least have informed the local agency office of the note’s existence.
State home department officials and city police officers said on condition of anonymity that the letter was a key piece of evidence in the attempt-to-suicide case against Ghosh and could, therefore, not be handed over to the CBI.
But a lawyer told this newspaper that the police had a duty to communicate the letter’s contents to the CBI.
“It’s understandable that the police are holding the suicide note back as a piece of evidence in their case, but it’s unethical to suppress the document from the central agency,” criminal lawyer Sk Salim Rahaman said.
City police sources familiar with the letter’s contents said its focus was on the “larger conspiracy” behind the Saradha scam.
Since the apex court has asked the CBI to look into the “wider conspiracy” and the role of “influential people”, the agency is keen to get a copy of the letter. A CBI source said the letter could “add value to a supplementary chargesheet”.
Apart from Mamata, those the letter sought “immediate action” against include Trinamul all-India general secretary Mukul Roy; Bengal chief secretary Sanjay Mitra; the secretary to the chief minister, Gautam Sanyal; Calcutta police commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha; Bidhannagar police commissioner Rajeev Kumar; businessman Tutu Bose and his son Srinjoy, a Trinamul MP.
According to a police source, the letter said the CBI had submitted its first chargesheet after an “incomplete investigation” and, therefore, only three names (including that of Ghosh) had been included.
The letter asked that “all the others, whose names are coming up”, be brought to book, the source added.
A part of the letter, read out by the source, purportedly says: “That the city police commissioner was endorsing brand Saradha with Sudipta Sen sitting beside him at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, is it not a larger conspiracy?”
The apparent reference is to a Saradha event that Kar Purkayastha had attended sometime before he became police commissioner. This newspaper tried to contact Kar Purkayastha tonight for comment on this issue but he was unavailable.
Ghosh’s letter purportedly adds: “The mysterious disappearance of Sudipta Sen after holding a meeting with a bunch of politicians, too, stinks of a larger conspiracy.”
A senior police officer said there were “no plans” to hand the letter over to the CBI, or even share its contents, unless asked by a court.
“Once the letter has been seized, we can’t officially hand it over to any other agency,” an officer said.
“If the CBI wants possession of the letter, it can approach the courts. We can act on a court’s order.”
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