A girl stands in front of the room where Manoj Sharma and his mother live. The girl is from the Tiljala neighbourhood and not related to the Sharma family. Picture by Meghdeep Bhattacharyya

Calcutta, Jan. 17: Charity does not begin at home — not for a director of a company that contributed Rs 1.40 crore to the Trinamul Congress.

Manoj Sharma, the director of Trinetra Consultant Pvt Ltd, and his septuagenarian mother live in a room in a rundown building at a slum in Tiljala in eastern Calcutta.

His mother suggested that Sharma does not earn more than Rs 5,000 a month. The address of the other director appeared to be fictitious.

All of which put the onus on Trinamul to explain how it accepted Rs 1.40 crore from such a company, whether it checked the promoters’ antecedents and the source of income.

Sharma’s mother — a frail lady who spoke in Hindi — identified herself as Reshma Sharma but declined to discuss the business of her son.

But she did speak for around 10 minutes outside the 10x12 feet room on Sreedhar Roy Road in Tiljala — the address listed in the company master data section of the website of the Union corporate affairs ministry.

The lady said her son had not been to the room for the past nine days. It was nine days ago that the BJP had first called for a probe into the donation made by Trinetra to Trinamul. Since then, The Telegraph has been trying to independently collect information on the company and the donation.

“Manoj hasn’t come home. His phone has remained switched off. A few days ago, a messenger from the company he works for came to say he was fine and in another state. I wish he’d call me once to let me know he’s okay,” she said, scolding and waving away curious children from the neighbourhood who gathered around.

She added: “He is being framed by his employers. I don’t know who they are. He used to do odd jobs for a small company somewhere in central Calcutta. He cannot even donate Rs 1,400 to anybody. We barely make ends meet with his income of less than Rs 5,000 a month.”

Trinetra, the contributor of Rs 1.40 crore, had made a profit of only Rs 13,589 in the 2013-14 financial year. In 2012-13, it had posted a loss of Rs 4,121.

Asked whether she was aware that her son is the director of as many as 61 companies, the lady said: “Even if he was the doorman of 61 companies, we would have been much better off than this. If he was involved in any wrongdoing, would you see us leading such a sorry life?”

The address of the second director, Sasi Kant Das, is also listed on the corporate affairs ministry’s website: 49/5/3F, Karl Marx Sarani, South Port, Calcutta.

A building does stand at 49/5 — again in the middle of a slum but this time near the Fancy Market in Kidderpore, southwest Calcutta. The ground floor alone has 80 shops but premises 3F does not exist.

Enquiries with 32 shopkeepers on the ground floor threw up replies that they had never heard about Das.

According to the ministry database, Sharma is a director or designated parter in 61 companies with names as evocative as Admirable Advisory, High Spot Initiative for Social Development and Ambition Suppliers. Das is a director of three companies, including Trinetra which claims to deal in investments in shares and securities.

On condition of anonymity, an industrialist cited the example of some jute mills to explain the phenomenon. In the jute industry, some ailing mills with substantial liabilities had been taken over by investors who have made peons, doormen and bearers directors.

“Known as arm’s-length ownership, the person actually acquiring the unit would keep his involvement a secret, leaving the dummy directors vulnerable should things go wrong. Sharma should be asked if this is the case with Trinetra,” the industrialist said.

Industry sources in Mumbai suggested that “dummy” directors were also put in place as a buffer in money-laundering operations. Such directors usually become the sacrificial goats in case the law catches up with the racket, and protect the puppet masters, they said.

“It is an old trick in the book,” added a Calcutta-based businessman.

Mumbai connection

A Mumbai connection has surfaced in the Trinetra saga.

According to a source who contacted this newspaper after the report on Trinetra was published today, the company had less than Rs 1.5 lakh in a bank account in Calcutta till March 28, 2014 — three days before the donation was made to Trinamul.

On March 29 — a Saturday — Rs 1.45 crore was transferred to Trinetra from a Mumbai account, according to the source who declined to divulge how he received the information. The Telegraph could not verify the claim as bank transaction details are confidential.

Subsequently but on the same day, Rs 5 lakh was withdrawn from Trinetra in favour of another Mumbai account, the source said.

Again on March 29, Rs 10 lakh was transferred to Trinetra from a Mumbai account, following which the same amount was withdrawn in favour of yet another Mumbai account.

Two days later, on March 31, Rs 1.40 crore was transferred from Trinetra to an “election account”, the source said.

Trinamul general secretary Mukul Roy’s letter to the Election Commission in September 2014 mentions Trinetra Consultant contributed Rs 1.40 crore to the party in 2013-14.

The proprietor of the audit firm that vetted the Trinetra accounts said the company was one of the scores that send their books to his firm daily and he had not been in touch with any representative of the firm other than a peon.

“I had gone through Trinetra’s books and there was no irregularity in what it had mentioned in its accounts. The contribution or allied details did not feature in the figures recorded in the books. It is not my job to probe these things for the smallest of companies,” said the auditor, a city-based chartered accountant.

“I was aghast when I read about the company in your newspaper this morning,” he added.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. Such revelations will only expedite the ruin of the ruling party in Bengal,” Bengal BJP president Rahul Sinha told this paper.

BJP state leader Shishir Bajoria, who was part of the team that first unearthed the discrepancy in the Trinamul letter to the commission, said action should be initiated against Roy, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP. “Filing such a false declaration ought to be enough for the party to be de-recognised,” Bajoria said.

Roy had said yesterday he would respond to the Election Commission if an explanation was sought.