Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP and actor Nussrat Jahan is facing heat for her alleged links with a real estate company that is said to have siphoned off money from property buyers.
Adding to the troubles of the first-time Lok Sabha MP is a court observation that prima facie a case could be made against the accused.
Nussrat was one of the directors of the company, 7 Sense Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, which had a deadline to deliver the flats in New Town in the suburbs of Kolkata by 2017. The real estate firm in question is accused of taking Rs 5.5 lakh each from 429 homebuyers to deliver flats and then swindling the money.
A leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with a group of aggrieved homebuyers went to the Enforcement Directorate office on Tuesday in Kolkata to file a complaint against Nussrat.
“Those named in the case have already been granted bail, but Nussrat didn’t make any personal appearance before the court. She has taken a stay in the case from the Alipore Court,” Sushanto Kumar Hazra, a complainant in the case, told the media Friday.
Hazra further alleged Nussrat had bought a flat worth over Rs 1 crore in a posh locality in Kolkata with the money transferred from the account of buyers.
Nussrat, however, has denied all the allegations claiming she had already resigned as the director of the real estate firm in 2017.
“I have not come here to give any clarification as I haven’t committed any offense. It’s a media trial. I am not involved in any fraudulent practice, I resigned as its director in March 2017. I don’t know why I am being falsely blamed,” the first-time Lok Sabha MP said at a press briefing Wednesday in Kolkata Press Club.
She claimed to have taken a loan of Rs 1.16 crore from 7 Sense Infrastructure and had returned Rs 1.40 crore with interest.
At the state secretariat on Wednesday, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee refused to comment on the episode and added that her MP was the right person to comment.
“Nussrat will speak about her case. Let the law prevail,” she asserted.
Also Read: Probing Bengal ‘SSC scam’, ED found parallel ‘municipal recruitment racket’. What its report says
Court found prima facie case against accused
A judicial magistrate court in Kolkata had received an inquiry report on 30 January from the Kolkata Police after it had ordered the Joint CP, Crime, Detective Department to submit a probe report.
“SI (Sub Inspector) Ranjit Yadav has submitted a detailed report and it transpires that the allegations against the accused persons have been substantiated during his inquiry. Considering the complaint, the statement of the complainant on oath and the report submitted u/s 202 CrPC. I find that a prima facie case has been made out against the accused persons u/s 420/406/34 IPC. Cognizance of the aforesaid offence is taken against the accused persons,” the magistrate said in its order on 30 January.
The court also issued summons under Section 204 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to the accused persons including Nussrat.
“We paid Rs 5.55 lakh to 7 Sense Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in 2014. We were given documents, but we didn’t get our flats. Many individuals began filing police complaints in 2022 and then we formed our organisation — Association for the Welfare of the Helpless Retired & Present Bank Employees Kolkata — and filed a case in the court for justice,” 70-year-old S. Lakhotia, an aggrieved home buyers, told ThePrint.
BJP leader Shanku Deb Panda, who accompanied the home buyers to the ED office, sought a probe by the central agency into the alleged financial fraud.
“We cannot share the copy of the complaint as we have submitted financial evidence, and don’t want it to be in the public domain. But, we want the ED to probe this case immediately. We will protest if they don’t take up the matter,” Panda, a former TMC general secretary, told ThePrint.
The ED, so far, has not taken up the case for investigation.
(Edited by Tony Rai)