(From top) Sudipta Sen, Debjani Mukherjee and Kunal Ghosh

Calcutta, Oct. 22: The CBI today submitted a chargesheet against Saradha Tours and Travels accusing its owner Sudipta Sen, his aide Debjani Mukherjee and suspended Trinamul MP Kunal Ghosh of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust.

This is the first chargesheet submitted by the investigating agency since taking over the probe following a Supreme Court directive in May. The apex court had asked the CBI to investigate the “larger conspiracy” and the role of “influential people”.

Along with the chargesheet submitted today, the central agency has attached a list of names of prominent persons whose roles are under the scanner and whose questioning is required to unearth the “larger conspiracy”, a CBI officer said in New Delhi.

“The list is confidential and we have requested the court to keep it in a sealed cover. Our job is to keep the trial court informed about the progress of our investigation and the high-profile people who are under the scanner,” the CBI officer said.

According to sources, the CBI’s first chargesheet mainly dealt with establishing a link between Ghosh and Sen.

“Our probe has also revealed that Ghosh was once very close to the Trinamul leadership before he was suspended by the party. In the supplementary chargesheet, we will fill all the missing links in the money trail and Saradha’s connection with other influential people who benefited,” the officer said.

“Ghosh is not the only or the end-beneficiary as money had gone to other persons, including some heavyweights,” he added.

In the draft prepared a few days ago, the CBI had mentioned a minister and a Trinamul MP, but their names were dropped later after consultations with the agency’s legal experts, who advised the investigators to name the two in the supplementary chargesheet after collecting more evidence.

The Telegraph had reported earlier this week about the possibility of some names being dropped from the draft and later included in subsequent chargesheets.

Senior CBI officers said today’s was a preliminary chargesheet with the scope of naming “several others” over the next few months as the investigation progresses.

Among several things, investigating officers said, the “larger conspiracy” would also dwell on how Saradha Tours and Travels had bagged the contract for officially organising South India package tours for IRCTC, as part of the Bharat Tirth scheme, in 2010.

Saradha got the contract when Mamata Banerjee was the Union railway minister.

“While the content of the chargesheet is primarily focused on the functioning of Saradha Tours and Travels, it also mentions three other companies — Saradha Realty, Saradha Garden Hotels and Resorts and Saradha Housing. Sudipta and Debjani were directors of all these companies,” a CBI officer said.

The chargesheet has been filed under sections 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a banker, merchant, agent or public servant) and sections 4 and 6 of the Prize Chit and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, sources said.

“Of the various companies of the Saradha Group, Saradha Realty was the main money-puller and central to the scam. Investigation details about this company’s operations and the roles of influential people will find mention in subsequent chargesheets,” the CBI officer added.

The 30-page chargesheet mentions that Saradha Tours and Travels was floated in 2007 with Sen and Mukherjee as its directors. Over the next few years, the company collected Rs 1,259 crore from the market by promising various attractive tour packages or return in cash to investors.

For instance, a person investing Rs 15,000 would be promised a trip to Goa for eight days and seven nights. “But most of the investors were not interested in the trips and put in their money for 20 per cent-plus annual returns. The promise of trips was just a ploy to raise money by bypassing regulators and we have mentioned it in the chargesheet,” another officer said.

According to the chargesheet, Sen and Mukherjee managed to siphon off Rs 988 crore from this pool and a part of the amount was later channelised to Strategy Media Plus Communication Private Ltd, which was owned by Ghosh.

The suspended Trinamul MP had mentioned this company in his affidavit while filing the nomination for Rajya Sabha elections.

The company was incorporated on August 24, 2010, and had produced a Bengali film — Balukabela.com — that has Trinamul MLA Bratya Basu and Rudranil Ghosh, chairman of the West Bengal Vocational Council, in its cast.

Venkatesh Films was responsible for the marketing and distribution of the film.

“The channelling of money is a clear indication of criminal conspiracy that was in place among Sen, Mukherjee and Ghosh,” the CBI officer said.

While drawing up the FIR, the central investigating agency had said that the directors of Saradha Tours and Travels had “dishonestly” opened 20 accounts in various banks to avoid scrutiny of its cash collection business.

The banks “never became suspicious of so many accounts and huge cash inflow into and outflow from the accounts”, the FIR said.

Bail denied

A vacation division bench of Justices Dipankar Dutta and Asish Chakraborty of Calcutta High Court rejected on Wednesday the bail prayer of Debabrata Sarkar, the East Bengal club official who was arrested by the CBI on August 22 in connection with the Saradha scam.

His advocate claimed the CBI had violated a recent Supreme Court ruling by arresting his client even after he co-operated with the central agency.

The CBI lawyer opposed the bail plea in view of the gravity of the scam.