After Partha Chatterjee, another Bengal minister – Manas Ranjan Bhunia – was interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged involvement in the I-Core multi-crore ponzi scam on Monday, 20 September.
The probe agency went to his office and interrogated him for nearly two hours.
The minister who was summoned by the agency to be present before the investigators had informed the CBI that he was unable to go because he was busy handling the flood situation in the state. The agency then decided to go to his office and interrogate him.
A three-member team of the economic offences wing of the CBI interrogated Bhunia, the minister for water resources and development, in his office.
Sources in the agency said that Bhunia was interrogated because he was found in several functions of the group. "We would like to know whether there were any financial transactions between the group and the minister," one of the CBI officers said.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also served a notice to the minister in the same ponzi scam.
Like Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund companies, I-Core raised money from the public by several fraudulent schemes floated by it.
The CBI had on 13 September questioned state Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with its probe into the I-Core chit fund scam case.
The central agency had taken over the investigation of Saradha and other ponzi scam cases on the orders of the Supreme Court on 9 May 2014.
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