Filmmaker Aparna Sen arrives at the Enforcement Directorate office for questioning
Actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen was on Monday questioned for six hours by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Rs 10,000 crore Saradha chit fund scam.
The 68-year-old national award winner was the editor of Paroma, a woman's magazine launched by the Saradha group in 2011.
"I briefly worked with Saradha, therefore they questioned me about transactions. But I informed them that I wasn't involved in any transactions and others took care of that," Ms Sen told reporters.
"I feel those behind the Saradha scam should be punished and I will cooperate fully with the authorities," she added.
The magazine shut down last year along with several other media ventures when the group collapsed in April last year.
The Enforcement Directorate also questioned, for the first time, a minister in connection in the scam.
Shyamapada Mukherjee, who is Textile Minister, says he has no links with Saradha except that in 2009, he sold some land in Bankura to the group. But sources claim the minister also sold a loss-making cement company to Sudipta Sen, the jailed chairman of the Saradha Group.
The Saradha Group operated a Ponzi scheme offering massive returns of 40 per cent and more until it went bust, leaving lakhs of small investors bankrupt in West Bengal and Odisha. The collapse triggered huge protests; three investors committed suicide.
The Supreme Court had last month ordered the CBI to probe "the involvement of higher-ups including politicians and aspects of money laundering."
"The money trail needs to be traced. The conspiracy angle needs to be probed properly. Not much headway has been made so far," the top court had added.
The verdict was viewed as a setback for Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress party was accused by opponents of close links with the Saradha Group. Among those who flagged the issue during the campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, provoking strong responses from Ms Banerjee and her party.