Calcutta, Aug. 25: The Enforcement Directorate today questioned Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Hassan Imran over alleged financial deals he struck as executive editor of a Bengali daily with Saradha chief Sudipta Sen.
“The ED officials asked me about Sen’s stint as owner of the newspaper where I was the executive editor. I replied to all their questions,” Imran said.
The Trinamul MP visited the ED’s Salt Lake office around 11.30am. He came out after around nine hours.
According to ED officials, Sen bought the Bengali daily, Kalam, in 2011. After his arrest in April 2013, the paper’s employees formed a cooperative to run the daily.
“He (Imran) said during his questioning that he was paid a monthly salary. But we have found documents that do not match his claim,” an ED official said. “We have also come across some papers that have his signatures on them. As an executive editor, he need not have signed them. We questioned him today over his financial deals with Sen and asked him to explain why he had signed the papers.”
The central agency had earlier summoned Imran before the Lok Sabha polls but the executive editor of Kalam had said he was “too busy”.
“Recently, we sent him a notice again and this time, he came,” an ED official said.
The CBI today examined Ramesh Gandhi, a businessman who was involved with a news channel partly funded by Saradha boss Sen.
Gandhi was questioned at the CBI’s Salt Lake office till late in the evening. Earlier in the day, the central investigating agency raided the businessman’s office in Tollygunge.
“Ramesh Gandhi’s name emerged during our probe into the business deals between Sen and (former Congress MP) Matang Sinh. Gandhi was the managing partner of the channel,” a CBI official said.
The official added: “We decided to summon Ramesh Gandhi after questioning Matang’s estranged wife Manoranjana yesterday.”
Santanu Ghosh, the chairman of Xenitis Group that sold computers branded Aamar PC, was today granted bail by Bankshall court.
“The court granted bail because the ED failed to submit charge sheet within 60 days of his arrest,” Ghosh’s lawyer said.
Ghosh was arrested by the ED on June 24 after several rounds of questioning. His name had figured in the letter purportedly written by Sen to the CBI.
Ghosh was arrested in the course of a probe into charges that he had taken loans totalling Rs 140 crore from a consortium of six banks and then managed to prevail upon Sen to buy out his company, Global Automobiles.
