West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
As the Centre today contradicted BJP president Amit Shah and said there was no evidence of the Saradha chit fund scam money funding terror, Mamata Banerjee said caustically: "Some people think they can say anything they want."
In a written reply in Parliament today, Jitender Singh, the Minister of State with the Prime Minister's Office, said there is no evidence to prove that Saradha money was used in the terror network exposed by the October 2 Burdwan blast.
"The investigation has so far not revealed any transaction where money was routed to Bangladesh to fund terrorist activities," Dr Singh said in a reply in the Lok Sabha to BJP MPs Hari Manjhi and Pralhad Joshi.
The minister later insisted that there was "no clean chit," but his statement was seized by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which demanded Mr Shah's apology.
""I never speak without evidence. I know my boundaries," Ms Banerjee said, and added a challenge, "We do not need money of chit funds. We arrested the kingpin of chit fund. "Catch me if you can... I am a fighter. I will keep fighting. Counter me politically if you can."
On Sunday, Amit Shah had said at a rally in Kolkata, "Saradha Chit Fund money was used in the Burdwan blast. The NIA is not being allowed to probe the blast properly. Hurdles are being created. It is being done in order to save TMC leaders who are involved in the blast."
Mr Shah had accused the Chief Minister of stalling the investigation by the National Investigation Agency into the Burdwan blast, which exposed a terror network with links to Bangladesh.
Three leaders of Mamata Banerjee's party, including two MPs, have been jailed for their alleged links with the Saradha Group that operated a Ponzi scheme offering huge returns of 40 per cent and more until it collapsed last year, leaving lakhs of small investors bankrupt in West Bengal and Odisha.