Sudip Bandyopadhyay in 6-day CBI custody

Bhubaneswar: The special judicial magistrate court remanded Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay to six-day CBI custody on Tuesday for his involvement in the multi-crore Rose Valley Group chit fund scam.

The court’s decision triggered a demonstration by party activists at the CBI’s regional office in Bhubaneswar. The protest was led by Akhil Giri, Ramnagar MLA from West Bengal.

“Both Tapas Paul and Sudip Bandyopadhyay are innocent. They were arrested by the CBI under the influence of the Centre. It is a conspiracy by the government to eliminate our party,” Mr Giri said, adding, “The party will organise a mega rally in Bhubaneswar on January 10.”

Mr Bandyopadhyay’s advocate Rajiv Majumdar termed his arrest vindictive and said the CBI should first prove that he received money from the Rose Valley Group. However, the court turned down the demand of CBI, which had sought 12 days in custody

Mr Bandyopadhyay was arrested by CBI in Kolkata on Tuesday, and was brought to Bhubaneswar later. The Rose Valley Group, which had its operations in several districts in Odisha, duped small depositors in the state to the tune of R 450 crore. The Group, which had members from several states such as West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, among others, had illegally raised around Rs 17,000 crore from the public on the false promises of paying high rates of interest.

Soon after Mr Bandyopadhyay arrived in Bhubaneswar, he was taken from Biju Patnaik International Airport to CBI’s regional office in Bhubaneswar amid tight security. According to sources, senior officials of the CBI questioned the leader for over four hours, before he was produced before the court.  

A four-time Lok Sabha member and a minister of state in the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government, Mr Bandyopadhyay was arrested by the CBI.