Kolkata, Oct 23 (IANS) Two top BJP leaders on Thursday accused the sons of a local Trinamool Congress leader of allegedly running a chit fund scam based out of the industrial township of Asansol in West Burdwan district of West Bengal.

The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, was the first BJP leader to make a social media post with the explosive allegations on Thursday afternoon.

In his post, LoP Adhkari alleged that Tahsin Ahmed, son of Shakil Ahmed a.k.a. Master Shakil, co-president of Trinamool Congress’ minority wing in West Burdwan district had collected unauthorised public deposits to the tune of Rs 350 crore from around 3,000 individuals in Asansol through an unlicenced corporate entity.

“He promised 14% monthly returns, i.e. ₹2.8 lakh on ₹1 lakh investment in 20 months, and later vanished on October 15th. 3,000 families’ lives were destroyed. People sold their land, took loans, savings for daughters’ weddings wiped out, lifelong earnings gone, all because of TMC-Sponsored Fraud! Big TMC Leaders and the Corrupt Administration provided full cover; otherwise, such a heist would not have been possible. Where did the ₹350 Crores go? Benami properties? Terror funding? Anti-national activities? TMC’s dirty political slush funds?,” Suvendu Adhikari claimed in his post.

In his post, the LoP demanded the immediate arrest of Tahsin Ahmed as well as a probe by central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in the matter. He also demanded full repayment of the deposits collected by the said entity to the depositors.

Later in the day, the BJP’s Information Technology cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, also made a similar post on this social media handle, alleging that most of the depositors who lost their money by investing in that said entity were from the Muslim community.

“He lured people with promises of high returns, collected crores, and then vanished on October 15, leaving behind victims burdened with lost savings, unpaid loans, and shattered dreams. Will Mamata Banerjee’s government act, or will this too be buried to protect her party’s own?” Malviya professsed in a social media post.

Both Malviya and Adhikari have attached a purported video of Tahsin Ahmed to their social media posts, where he allegedly expressed his inability to pay the assured returns to the depositors by the promised deadline of October 20.

The Trinamool Congress leadership is totally tight-lipped over the allegations. At the time of the filing of the report there was no reaction from the West Burdwan district administration in the matter.

–IANS

src/rad