Congress flays CBI for not taking action against Sarma after he joined BJP

The Assam Congress on Monday accused the CBI of not taking action against state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. "The CBI is yet to take any action against Sarma and investigations against him have stopped after he joined the BJP," Assam Pradesh Congress spokesman and former minister Pradyut Bordoloi told reporters here.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged on Sunday night that Sarma was involved with the chit fund scam, he said. "He (Sarma) was investigated for his involvement in the scam while he was in Congress but after he joined the BJP, it stopped," she said.

Bordoloi claimed that "Apart from Saradha, the BJP had earlier accused Sarma of being involved with the Louis Berger scam. A number of arrests were made in Goa in connection with this scam but no action has been taken in Assam". "It seems Himanta has been cleared in all the cases after he joined the BJP," he said.

The BJP had mentioned Sarma's "involvement" in the Louis Berger case in the party's manifesto during the 2014 Lok Sabha but "once he joined BJP, the party became silent and trained their guns at West Bengal", Bordoloi said. "Himanta has a history of changing allegiance to save his skin. When TADA cases were slapped against him, he left the ULFA to join Congress and then joined the BJP to save himself from the Sarada and Louis Berger cases", he added.

In July 2015 Louis Berger International Inc, a New Jersey-based construction management company, had told a US court that it bribed government officials in India to win the contract for a project management consultancy in a water supply project in Guwahati. The then Congress government led by Tarun Gogoi had ordered a CID probe but the Gauhati High Court later ordered a CBI inquiry into the allegations..

(With inputs from agencies.)