Sources within the Enforcement Directorate said Saayoni Ghosh was questioned about the source of her wealth.
Saayoni Ghosh, a young actor-turned politician and president of the youth wing of Trinamool Congress, is reportedly in trouble over the source of her wealth. She was questioned last Friday and will again be questioned on Wednesday by officials of the Enforcement Directorate, according to information reaching here.
Sources within the ED said Ghosh was questioned about the source of her wealth that included cash in her bank accounts and the source of her expensive flat and other properties she acquired recently in Kolkata.
Ghosh told reporters that she was cooperating with ED officials who had asked for more documents relating to her financial wealth. She told the Enforcement Directorate that she will be in a position to get the documents on 5 July 2023.
Her questioning by the ED has already snowballed into a political storm in Kolkata where TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh termed the questioning “pure harassment”. The ED officials told this reporter that the first tranche of papers collected from Ghosh have been sent to the headquarters in Delhi. Those in the know told this reporter that Saayoni was close to Kuntal Ghosh, another TMC functionary, currently in judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the teacher scam that has hit Bengal. Though it is not confirmed, there are allegations that a portion of the cash Kuntal Ghosh took was from gullible job aspirants.
The actress, it is reliably learnt, has told the ED that whatever cash she has in her bank and the flat she purchased was from cash she earned from movies. But documents sourced by the ED show Saayoni Ghosh is not among the city’s top film stars and hence, her high earnings would always be questioned.
Saayoni, claims the ED, was instrumental in getting Ghosh in the city’s film circuit and both routinely attended all film events in the city. Ghosh and his actress friend—considered close to TMC supremo Abhishek Banerjee—also worked very closely with top party officials and was the go-to-people for projects that required clearances from the state government. Ghosh, the ED has told the courts, always worked with bribes and shared the cash with top TMC leaders.
Now the ED is investigating if a portion of the cash also went to the actress. The ED, claim insiders of the investigating agency, sees this sharing of sleaze money within TMC leaders as routine. The actress, claims ED, is an extremely powerful and influential person in Kolkata.
Her confidant Ghosh, who often claimed to party juniors that he was above law, continued to extort cash from candidates even after their appointments were struck down by the Calcutta High Court. The ED has told the courts that as many as 40-50 people received cash from Ghosh and the ED suspects the bank transfers were made out of the illegal cash Ghosh earned from the candidates.
“Now the Enforcement Department is probing if Ghosh shared a portion of the cash with the actress,” said an insider from Kolkata in a telephonic conversation with this reporter. “After all, Ghosh collected some Rs 20-22 lakhs from each job seeker. That is a lot of cash.”
Now those who received cash from Ghosh are being scrutinised, said the insider, adding the ED suspects the actress was also among those who shared the cash. Sources in the ED said that Saayoni’s name surfaced multiple times while grilling those arrested in connection with its probe. Saayoni has been asked to give details of her properties, a few dealings she had while purchasing one flat besides IT returns, bank account details, and investments. The ED is probing if Ghosh invested in properties owned by Saayoni.
TMC functionary Tapas Mondal—also arrested in the teachers’ recruitment scam—had named Ghosh and associates for raising cash from job seekers during his interrogation with the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI.
During its investigations into the teacher recruitment scam, the CBI claimed more than Rs 100 crore was allegedly raised by TMC leaders from job aspirants to employ them as teachers and staff at state-run schools across Bengal between 2014 and 2021. Last year, former state education minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested in the School Service Commission recruitment for Classes IX-XII, bringing the TMC government un- der attack from the BJP-led Opposition. The investigating agencies recovered huge cash from the residence of Chatterjee aide Arpita Mukherjee.
“Now here is the catch, all aides of top TMC leaders got cash. And it is here Saayoni becomes a suspect,” said the insider.
What is interesting is that the actress, once a diehard Leftist, is not finding support from anyone, not even from her party. The actress, who once courted controversy for posting an image of a Shivling with a condom, must find a way out of this mess. Else she will lose both. Her political career and her film career.