Second, she claimed that seeing Mr. Singh in a picture with CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had led her to think well of the Alchemist man ! Coming on heels of the TMC”s systematic smear campaign against Bhattacharjee — TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee once accused him of drinking country liquor with his cronies at Nandan cultural complex — this 180 degrees turn has caused many eyebrows to rise.

Now that Narada News Chief Mathew Samuels has declared that Singh spent Rs 80 lakhs to sponsor the sting operation showing 22 TMC Ministers, MPS and MLAs accepting bribes on screen, knives are out in Bengal for him. An FIR has been lodged in a city thana against Singh by aggrieved depositors alleging that the Alchemist made off with large sums of their savings. Kolkata police will begin their inquiries.

However, the timing of the ruling TMC Government suddenly activating its somnolent police against a supposed renegade is intriguing. Complaints against the Alchemist duping its depositors — their number runs into thousands — had been pouring in from mid 2016. The police then refused to register any FIR. Question: why did the police take no action against an obvious economic fraud, surely a criminal activity of the worst kind? Answer: ’We have our orders,’ by a section of policemen who took no further questions from duped depositors.

A few people then moved the Kolkata High Court. Counsel for Alchemist said the company would repay all aggrieved complainants after May, 2017. It had already taken certain steps to make sure no one lost his deposit. The problem arose because of the alleged mismanagement of funds by a high rank official of the company.

It is interesting that in the meantime Mr. Singh officially relinquished his charge and all responsibilities as the former CEO of the company. Now , the remains of the company ,its largely non-existent real estate ‘assets’ and liabilities, are run by other faceless people. Could it be that the change of guards occurred because Mr. Singh knew what was going to happen to the money collected from the people by the Alchemist?

Shantanu Sinha, of the BJP”s Legal cell says, ’Even if Mr. Singh could be run down to earth somewhere, after much song and dance by the city police, he will simply present his company documents to establish that he had nothing to do with Alchemist after a certain period. His sponsoring of the Narada sting operation he has already denied.’ In other words, the so-called police probe would end in a legal deadlock, allowing those involved in the corruption further time to fortify their position.

Interestingly, Ms Banerjee did not take the expected step of disowning Singh by expelling him from the TMC. Her explanation: ’He would still remain a Rajya Sabha member, so it would be no use.’ This contrasted strongly with her summary suspension of RS MP Kunal Ghosh and ordering his arrest for alleged links with the Sarada chit fund scam.

Ghosh has been released on bail and is known to be helping the TMC publicity campaign. But Mr. Singh remains a Rajya Sabha member enjoying the full complement of his privileges.

Naturally opposition leaders in Bengal dismiss the Chief Minister’s claims. CPI(M) leaders Dr. Suryakanta Mishra and Mr. Sujan Chakravarty point out how the TMC pressured the centre not to proceed against Mr. Singh when he was caught carrying large sums of money. He was a TMC RS member then. There were reports that he was a major contributor to the TMC.

They said that during the TMC rule from 2011 onwards the business growth for the Alchemist was quite at par , if not much more , with the gains made by Sarada, Rose Valley and other shady outfits. In most of these, the sponsors received active encouragement from TMC Ministers and local leaders. As for Ms Banerjee’s mentioning former Chief Minister Bhattacharjee in a rare positive context, they could only think of it as a joke.

On the other hand, TMC leaders maintain that that the Left Front had encouraged the mushrooming of chit fund schemes in the state, which later spread to other parts of the country.

The TMC targeted Mr Chakravarty and Mr. Robin Deb of the CPI(M) as two prime targets as chit fund sponsors, but could not establish.

Even more intriguing is the case of former SP of Burdwan District, IAS officer S.H.M. Mirza, who is seen in the incriminating video wearing a ‘banyan’, stretching out an eager left hand to clutch currency notes from someone, as they keep talking. Three times the give and take was recorded.

Ms Banerjee and the TMC had at first dismissed the videos as ‘fake’. Later, they changed tune. The Chief Minister said that if she had known earlier, she would not have given party tickets TO the people caught on camera for election. But the sting was a conspiracy, conducted by the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) which was scared of the TMC”s potential as its strongest opposition in India. From the village block to the state capital, scores of rallies and meetings were held to deride and condemn the ‘ anti-Bengal conspirators.’

TMC leaders added fresh charges of their own as they attacked Narada company boss Samuel. He had’ blackmailed’ them, it was alleged, without any explanation as to what factors had prompted the ‘blackmail’.

Ms Banerjee next suggested that it was common for political parties to accept donations, especially before elections. ‘Payments of Rs one or two lakh hardly matter,’ she added.

A CPI leader said, ’She really has no choice, now that the investigating agencies have confirmed that the videos are not fake.’

The High Court pulled up the State government for not immediately proceeding against Mr. Mirza, who has suffered no more than the minor indignity of a less prominent posting. This has not come in the way of his attending policy-planning meetings and sessions in the state administration. Ms Banerjee, presumably referring to his token transfer, said that the government had already taken action against Mirza.

However, it was only some days later that a show-cause notice was finally out for Mr Mirza and it now remains to see what happens next. (IPA Service)