Trinamool Congress MP and actress Nusrat Jahan, who was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged flat-selling scam, appeared before the agency office in Kolkata on Tuesday. The ED questioned the MP for about six hours.
On emerging from the ED headquarters, Jahan said that she had cooperated with the agency and would continue to do so if required in the future. “I have given answers to all questions and will do so in future as well,” she said.
The ED registered a case against Jahan, a Bengali actor, due to her association as a director with a shady financial entity which allegedly duped senior citizens of several crores of rupees by promising them residential flats at reasonable rates.
The Enforcement Directorate registered a case against Jahan after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Shankudeb Panda, filed a complaint alleging that the Trinamool Congress MP, her capacity as a director of a real estate firm Seven Senses Infrastructure Private Limited, had duped people of Rs 5.5 lakh each from 429 people promising them apartments at Rajarhat-New Town in Kolkata.
The 429 people were all senior citizens who had been employees of a public sector bank.
The ED summoned Nusrat to its office in the CGO Complex at Salt Lake for questioning on her connection with the said entity Seven Senses Infrastructure Private Ltd.
The BJP took a swipe at the TMC MP with the party state secretary Agnimitra Paul saying that Nusrat Jahan will be punished if there is any proof against her.
“This is the Modi Government, you can be a Chief Minister, a politician or a film star, but you will not be spared if you cheat people… Retired people gave crores of rupees of their life savings to Nusrat Jahan to get a flat. They got neither the flat nor the money. The investigation is underway, if there is proof, Nusrat Jahan will be punished,” Paul said.
The 33-year-old actor had denied allegations of being involved in any fraudulent practice and said that she had resigned from the directorship of the company in March 2017.
Jahan, the Basirhat MP, had said she had taken a loan from the company and repaid it with interest in May 2017.
The senior citizens had earlier filed a case in the Alipore court in Kolkata against Nusrat Jahan and others for cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, criminal breach of trust and acts by several people with common intention.
Shankudeb Panda of the BJP alleged: “It is a clear case of money siphoning. She has already admitted that she took money from the company as a loan. This, she was not supposed to. If they are given more time, they will utilise the time to prepare false documents to save themselves. The ED should immediately attach her property because it is the proceeds of crime.”