Kolkata, Nov 5 — The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kolkata Police probing Indranil Sen, former West Bengal Tourism Minister and former Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs, in connection with his alleged involvement in the multi-crore fake Durga Puja pass case linked to UNESCO-tagged festival tours, has identified as many as 150 tenders of these two government departments that were awarded to three corporate entities linked to Sen when he was in power
All the 150 tenders were granted to the three corporate entities linked to Sen during the five years from 2021 to 2026, when he was handling the twin ministerial portfolios simultaneously.
“Preliminary investigation had revealed that tenders relating to these two departments, like Red Road Carnival, road decorations, celebrating Amitabh Bachchan's birthday, distributing prasad at the Jagannath Dev temple in Digha, and distributing sweets at various places, were granted to these three corporate entities linked to Sen, whose day-to-day operations were run by his close confidants, with the former West Bengal Minister having indirect but absolute control over the management of these three entities,” said a city police insider.
Meanwhile, the city police’s probe into the role of “Mass Art”, the corporate entity owned by Sen’s wife Madhuchhanda Sen, in marketing of the fake UNESCO-tagged Durga Puja passes has led to a matrimonial feud between the former minister and his wife.
On one hand, the city police insider claimed that Sen's role was either in decision-making or day-to-day operations of Mass Art, and any corporate decision was made by his wife, who owned the entity.
“However, in the face of interrogation, Madhuchanda Sen had claimed that her ownership in ‘Mass Art’ was just on paper and all major decisions were taken by her husband and his second-in-command in the entity, Dhrubojyoti Basu,” the city police officer said.
Basu, who was absconding since Sen's arrest last week, was finally arrested on Wednesday night. The investigating officials say that interrogation of Basu will reveal more details about the roles of Sen and his wife in Mass Art.
Basu will be presented at a lower court in Kolkata later in the day, and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody. The investigating officers plan to interrogate Sen, his wife and Basu together to eliminate the chances of contradictory statements.