Probe started against Trinamool MP Imran

Indian authorities have started a high-level inquiry against Trinamool MP Ahmed Hassan Imran, who has been allegedly funding the Jamaat-e-Islami.

New Delhi correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 Sept 2014, 06:12 AM
Updated : 13 Sept 2014, 12:39 PM

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said a central intelligence agency is probing the allegations.

"The investigation has started. Law will take its own course. We will not interfere with it," Singh said.

Ahmed Hassan Imran, who was nominated to Rajya Sabha by none other than West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was actually a senior office bearer of the now-banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

The Trinamool Congress, however, rubbished all these as 'motivated propoganda' and defended him as a Muslim minority leader.

Rajnath Singh did not elaborate on the matter and said it was 'sensitive'.

Central intelligence agencies, however, suspect that former SIMI leaders are involved in financing the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh.

"A report by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office says a big portion of the Saradha deposits were siphoned off in the US and West Asia. The possibility of quite a bit of that money going in Bangladesh is not ruled out by the investigators.

"Imran is alleged of giving part of the money to the Jamaat-e-Islami to create instability in Bangladesh," senior IB officials said.
They said that Imran was the mastermind behind the protests at Kolkata's Dharmatala after war crimes convict and Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla's execution in December last year.

He also played a major role, alongwith lawyer Idris Ali ( now an MLA), in fomenting the violent stir against exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's stay in Kolkata during Left rule, they added.

Meanwhile, Trinamool leader Subrata Mukerjee said that the allegations against Imran were 'untrue'.

He challenged the media to come up with evidence backing their claims or else they will move to the court.

"The BJP is behind this. They want to create a stir and defame our party .

"An investigation will be conducted. If anything is proven then he will be punished. But why label Imran a criminal before that?" said the Trinamool leader.

Trinamool leader Firhad Hakim Bobby said: "Since Imran is a Muslim, that's why all this fuss. The BJP is tainting the image of a member of the minority as the Trinamool made him MP."

Meanwhile, the BJP said they welcome Trinamool's intention to move the court.

"It would be great if they move the court. Attacking Imran only because he belongs to a minority community is out of question. He is involved in treason. That's why he is being criticised," said the BJP's state observer Siddharthnath Singh.

In a report ran on Friday, Kolkata's 'Ananda Bazar Patrika' also claimed that Imran had sent huge amount of funds to the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh between 2012 and 2013.