Trinamool Congress MP and actor Mithun Chakraborty on Tuesday returned the money he received from the scam-hit Saradha group of companies to the Enforcement Directorate with his lawyer depositing a demand draft for Rs 1.2 crore at the ED office in Kolkata's Salt Lake area. June 16 happens to be Mithun's birthday.

The payment was part of Chakraborty's earlier commitment that he would return the funds that he had received from the group. "The DD has been given to the Investigating Officer of the Saradha scam probe case," sources said, adding the agency is satisfied with the said action and the statement recorded by the 65-year-old actor-politician regarding his role in the operations of the group, which has now become defunct in the wake of allegations against it of perpetrating a large-scale chit-fund scam in West Bengal and other states.

During his last questioning by the ED in Kolkata in May, Chakraborty had provided the agency sleuths with a number of DVDs, CDs and scripts that he had got as part of being the brand ambassador of the Saradha group. The actor had done so to back his claim to investigators that his association with Saradha Group was purely professional and that he had no intentions of cheating or duping anyone. He had told investigators that he had no inkling about any sort of scam that was being perpetrated. The actor had submitted all his personal and official records to the agency in this regard, the sources said.

What is the Saradha scam about?

The Saradha scam refers to an investment scheme run by the Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies in West Bengal. The group collapsed in 2013, causing a loss of thousands of crores to over 17 lakh investors. The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned a series of top Trinamool Congress leaders for questioning in the multi-crore scam, which has severely haunted the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal.

Last month, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh had questioned the role of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), alleging that the agency is being used to sustain the political agenda of the ruling NDA government.

"The CBI inquiry is being used to get tacit support from the Trinamool Congress in Parliament," Ghosh, one of the accused in the multi-million Saradha chit fund scam, wrote in his four-page letter to Modi. Ghosh has also alleged that the accused in Saradha scam are being spared selectively and asked Modi to intervene in the ongoing CBI probe.