Mamata accuses Modi of holding rally on scamster's ground

Indiia’s West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that prime minister Narendra Modi's election rally in Bengal's Mathurapur constituency was held at a ground which belongs to the owner of an illegal microfinance company.

Taking a swipe at Modi for repeatedly accusing her and her party leaders of being involved in Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scam, the Trinamool Congress supremo urged the police to immediately start a case against that “chit fund owner”.

"The ground where PM Modi is holding his rally today belongs to Kapil Mondal, the owner of a microfinance company without license. Go and check. And he (Modi) talks about chit fund scams?" Banerjee said during her meeting at the same parliamentary constituency.

"I have got all the documents. It has come to our knowledge just yesterday (Wednesday) that the person has collected millions of rupees from people in the name of his company and illegally bought lands here. I will hand over all the documents to the local police here so that a case could be immediately started against the chit fund owner," she said.

She also wondered whether the BJP is getting a share of the money collected by the microfinance company owner.

"Is he giving a share of the money to BJP? Maybe they are. Where is Narendra Modi? You talk about Narada (sting footage case), Saradha. But this is how you people start such scams," she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

The owner of the land, however, refuted Banerjee's allegations and said his company has been given a clean chit by central regulatory authorities like the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

"The SEBI and RBI has checked everything here and given me a clean chit. Maybe she is claiming it to be illegal because she could not hold the rally on this ground. Had I permitted her to hold a meeting here, everything would have become legal," Mondal said.