Kolkata, Oct 29 (IANS) Besides the alleged involvement of former West Bengal Minister, Indranil Sen, in an alleged fake Durga Puja pass scam linked to UNESCO-tagged festival tours, Kolkata Police is also probing the financial links of a corporate entity owned by Sen’s wife Madhucchanda Sen, with a couple of event management entities when the singer-turned-politician was serving as the Minister of State for Information & Cultural Affairs.

Insiders from the city police said that during Sen’s tenure as minister, an event management tender on behalf of the department worth Rs 53.46 crore was granted to an event management entity GIDI Creation.

The administration, according to city police, then overlooked complaints that the tender was granted to that event management entity just because the firm, which did not have sufficient experience in the related field, was owned by a childhood friend of Sen.

Later, as per information gathered by the Investigating Officers in the matter, GIDI Creation outsourced the work, for which the tender was granted to another event management entity Third Line Creation, which is completely inoperative now. At that point in time, GIDI Creations had transferred an amount of Rs 50.31 crore to the accounts of Third Line Creation.

Subsequently, substantial funds were transferred to the Madhucchanda Sen-owned entity Mass Art Society, through which the UNESCO-tagged Durga Puja passes were sold. At the same time, city police insiders said, the accounts of two other entities namely ISCAPE and Myra, both owned by close relatives of Sen, are also under the scanner of the Investigating Officers.

Both the Kolkata Police and Enforcement Directorate (ED) had been conducting parallel investigations in the alleged UNESCO-tagged Durga Puja passes scam. In fact, the cops of Kolkata Police arrested Sen after he came out of ED’s Salt Lake office on the northern outskirts of Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon after facing a marathon interrogation by the central agency officials in the matter.

Sen will be presented at a lower court in Kolkata later on Thursday and the Public Prosecutor will seek his police custody for further interrogation. The police are trying to track other beneficiaries in the alleged scam.

–IANS

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