The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday summoned senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and state minister Manas Bhunia for questioning in connection with its probe in the ICore Chit Fund case. Bhunia has been told to appear at the CBI office in Salt Lake at 11 am on Monday.
The summons to the senior TMC leader came almost a week after the agency questioned his ministerial colleague Partha Chatterjee for almost two hours in connection with the case.
In 2015, CBI arrested the ICore group’s chief, Anukul Maity, on the charge of illegally mobilising Rs 3,000 crore from small investors. Maity who faced money laundering charges was in prison in Bhubaneswar till his death in November 2020.
Meanwhile, sources said that the CBI had issued arrest warrants against 12 people in connection with its probe into the murder of BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar in Kolkata’s Narkeldanga area on May 2. Copies of the warrants had been handed over to the families of all the accused, they added.
Sarkar’s brother has alleged that during the polls TMC leaders threatened him and his brother. The BJP worker’s family has appealed to the CBI to arrest a sub-inspector at the Narkeldanga police station.
The CBI took over the inquiries into alleged post-poll violence after the Calcutta High Court on August 19 ordered it to investigate heinous crimes such as rape, murder, and attempted murder reported during the alleged violence. The agency has so far registered 37 cases.