Retired bank officials red-flag her directorship with a real estate firm that allegedly defrauded them; Jahan refutes charges.
KOLKATA
Trinamool Lok Sabha parliamentarian and actor Nusrat Jahan has landed in a fresh controversy after a group of retired bank officials red-flagged her directorship with a real estate firm that allegedly defrauded them. They claimed that the real estate company, with Jahan as one of its directors, swindled them out of Rs 24 crore by promising to deliver flats in New Town, Kolkata. The firm, with Nusrat Jahan as its face, had collected Rs 5.55 lakh each from 429 retired employees of Indian Overseas Bank, they said.
The BJP has voiced support for the senior citizens and has facilitated the filing of a complaint with the Enforcement Directorate office in Kolkata. The Trinamool Congress, which has been buffeted by corruption charges, however, seemed to distance itself from its MP. Party supremo Mamata Banerjee told reporters: “Nusrat will say what she has to say. We have nothing to do with it. There is no need for a media trial.”
Sankudeb Panda, BJP’s state youth wing chief and the party’s observer in the politically important Diamond Harbour constituency which is represented by Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamool number two Abhishek Banerjee, alleged that Nusrat had “intentionally and deliberately defrauded the senior citizens and then used her clout as a ruling party MP to ensure that the Kolkata Police did not take any action when the senior citizens filed a complaint before it”. He demanded that the Enforcement Directorate should immediately arrest Nusrat Jahan, otherwise, he said: “We shall file a case against ED’.’ Nusrat Jahan is a Trinamool Congress MP representing Basirhat, a minority-dominated constituency in North 24-Parganas district, which she won with a margin of more than 3.5 lakh votes in the 2019 general elections.
Jahan spoke to the media to set the record straight on these accusations. She said that she severed her ties with the 7 Senses Infrastructure Company on 1 March 2017, and has had no connection with the company since. Jahan further clarified that she does not own any stake in the company.
“I had taken a loan from this company. The loan amount was Rs 1,16,30,285 and on 6 May 2017, I repaid the loan with interest—an amount of Rs 1,40,71,995. I have all the bank details for this. I have bank statements. Everything is there with me,” the actor told reporters at a press conference at the Kolkata Press Club on Wednesday.
“The allegation is that I have bought an apartment with this money. I am here in front of you because there is this misconception. The company gave me a loan and I returned the loan to the company with interest. That is clear in my verified bank statement which is there in the court,” added Nusrat Jahan. She also asked people not to politicise the issue and said that she has presented all the necessary documents to the court. “It’s not the work of any civilised resident to interfere with the proceedings of the court. Let’s not do that,” she added.
“I have not come here to give any clarification as I have not committed any wrong. A media trial is going on. I am not involved in any wrongdoing or any form of fraudulent practice. I resigned as its director long back in March 2017. I don’t know why I am being falsely blamed,” Jahan said at the press conference.
However, the MP’s statement was contradicted by Rakesh Singh, the managing director of the real estate firm, who said that the 7 Senses Infrastructure Company had not extended any loan to her. “I do not know what led her to make that statement,” he said.
In the past decade, apart from her tryst with films, Nusrat Jahan has been in the news for mostly the wrong reasons. She was accused of harbouring Kader Khan, her then boyfriend who was the prime accused in the Park Street rape case of an Anglo-Indian woman in February 2012.
More recently, she was in the news when her marriage to businessman Nikhil Jain, solemnised with much fanfare in Turkey, ran into trouble. She claimed in court that she did not marry Jain and was only living-in with him. When she became pregnant, Jain said that he was not the child’s father. Later on, it was revealed that the child’s birth certificate named another Tollywood actor Yash Dasgupta as the father.