Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee summoned by CBI in Saradha chit fund scam

Trinamool Congress minister Partha Chatterjee has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with its probe into the Rs 10,000 crore Saradha chit fund, sources said.

Mr Chatterjee is likely to visit the CBI's office in Kolkata after 2 pm, sources said.

"Yes, Chatterjee has been called to meet our officers for questioning in connection with our probe into the Saradha scam. We are waiting for him," a CBI officer said, news agency PTI reported.

The CBI calling the state Education Minister for questioning comes a week after another Trinamool Congress MP, Derek O'Brien, was questioned for three hours at the investigating agency's Bidhananagar office in Kolkata.

The CBI is probing alleged links between the Saradha chit fund scam, which surfaced in 2013, and the funding of the TMC's newspaper, Jago Bangla.

Mr Chatterjee is the editor of the newspaper, while Mr O'Brien is its publisher.

Other TMC leaders who have been summoned by the CBI earlier include Subrata Bakshi and Manik Banerjee, an aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Derek O'Brien, a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has often claimed that the Saradha chit fund scam was being "politicised" by the BJP-led central government to defame Ms Banerjee. "Corruption will never stick to Didi's white saree," he had remarked earlier this year.

Last month, the Enforcement Directorate had summoned six people, including Trinamool Congress lawmaker Satabdi Roy and former member Kunal Ghosh, for questioning in the chit fund scam. Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar is also an accused in the case.

The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal has been dogged by the Saradha chit fund scam as well as the Rs 17,500 crore Rose Valley scam for several years now.

A further blow came in the recent Lok Sabha elections, when the state's ruling party's tally came down from 42 in the 2014 contest to just 22. The BJP was able to push up its numbers to 18 - just four seats less than the Trinamool Congress.