In what may add to the embarrassment to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, non-bailable charges have been pressed against Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh. A group of 21 employees of Channel 10 which Mr Ghosh headed and rose to become its chief executive officer had filed an FIR against him at the Park Street police station late Thursday night.
They alleged that they had not received their salaries for months and claimed that their contributions were not deposited by the company to the provident fund. This is the first time when a direct complaint surfaced against Mr Ghosh who has received the open support of the chief minister in wake of the Saradha Group’s collapse and his alleged involvement in the scam.
Besides, arrested Saradha Group chairman and managing director Sudipta Sen, vice-president Somnath Dutta, the channel’s manager Ashok Bhattacharya and four journalists with senior positions in the editorial were also named in the FIR, said joint commissioner of police (crime) Pallab Kanti Ghosh on Friday.
“A case under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 418(cheating with knowledge), 420 (cheating), 421 (concealment of property) and 506(criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code has been started against the eight accused,” said Mr Ghosh.
The detective department (DD) will probe the case and is sending requisitions to the income-tax department and Employees Provident Fund Organisation for data.
If required, the DD may question Mr Ghosh, sources hinted. Describing himself as a “merely salaried employee”, Mr Ghosh, however, said, “I am ready to face any kind of investigation. An uninterrupted conspiracy and canard have been underway. I am being made a scapegoat. Giving salary was not my job. I was neither the channel’s owner nor the director. My job was restricted only to the editorial.”
He added, “Finance and accounts were not in my purview.”
I never gave salaries and had no authority to sign the cheques or to sanction money.” Regarding Mr Sen’s explosive letter to the CBI, Mr Ghosh said, “I never forced him to sign any paper. It’s a baseless allegation. Till date, Mr Sen is the owner of the company. He failed to pay salaries but blamed others to save himself. Mr Sen tried to sell the channel failing to run it.”
Mr Dutta said, “I was merely an employee who was in charge of looking into the employees’ leaves. The complaint is unfortunate for us. I will fight along with others who have been accused in the FIR.”
On Friday afternoon, angry employees of the channel from the districts who claimed they had not been paid for months organised a protest demonstration at the channel’s office in Kolkata.