Kolkata, April 24 (PTI): Chairman of controversial Saradha Group company Sudipta Sen has accused two Trinamool Congress MPs among others of 'extortion' and 'blackmail'.
Sen, in an 18-page letter to CBI, threatened to commit suicide for his predicament.
"I shall be committing suicide any moment not because I am physically or mentally sick or weak but because I am feeling helpless because of unscrupulous persons and cheats ... because of whom entire public money which has been collected in my name or by using my name has come to such a risk that I may not be able to refund them."
Listing the buying of a TV channel as a 'mistake', he said the channel started and a Bengali newspaper represented by Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose, the two TMC MPs,made an agreement that he would pay Rs 60 lakh per month to the daily.
Apart from that, Ghosh was appointed CEO of the channel at a salary of Rs 15 lakh per month.
"The newspaper gave me assurance that by execution of the agreement they will protect my business from the state government and central government and I will be able to get a smooth passage," the letter said.
"They assured me that they have very close connection with the present CM of the state," it said.
He alleged Ghosh was also given a new car in his name. Srinjoy Bose, however, said his paper had a professional tieup with the TV channel 'Channel 10' in 2010 for providing editorial content but not with the Saradha chit fund company or any other ancillary.
"But later, our experience with them was bad. Cheques started bouncing and the agreement was scrapped in March, 2013," Bose said.
Asked about the antecedents of the Saradha Group chairman, he replied "We did not know that the man was a fraud."
Sen also accused Ghosh of going to his office along with 'miscreants' and forced him to sign some documents "which I signed without going through the contents. "After they left, I read and found that they had got me to sign as if I have sold them Channel 10 for a meagre amount Rs 15 lakh, which can never happen."
Sen also named the wife of a union minister for seeking money to set up a TV channel in the Northeast.
He said the names he mentioned in his letter must be treated as an FIR for "putting me in a situation of and/or to provoking me for committing suicide."