CBI arrests Mamata’s close aide & film producer Shrikant Mohta in Ponzi-related case

A CBI team raided Shrikant Mohta's office in south-east Kolkata's Acropolis Mall on Thursday afternoon and detained Mohta for further interrogation.

The CBI officers took Mohta to their office at CGO Complex in Salt Lake around 3pm and arrested him following an interrogation session this evening.

Sources in the central probe agency said that Shrikant Mohta was earlier grilled twice on a Rs 25-crore signed between SVF and a Rose Valley group-owned TV channel in 2010.

"An infotainment channel owned by the media and entertainment wing of Rose Valley group had signed a deal worth Rs 25 crore in 2010 with Shree Venkatesh Films to get the broadcasting rights of 70 films produced by SVF Entertainment Ltd," a CBI official told IBNS.

"Later that year, Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu had moved court against SVF alleging that the film production company had given broadcasting rights of only 30 films to the Rose Valley channel instead of the promised 70 as mentioned in the deal," the official said.

"The producer has been arrested for providing misinformation and misguiding the probe and also for his non-cooperation with the investigators," the officer added.

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Meanwhile, sources in the CBI claimed there were inputs that Mohta played the role of a hawala agent in laundering Saradha chit fund's money to several foreign countries during his films' shootings in overseas locations.

"We are taking support from the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate (ED) departments to know more about the link," a CBI official said.
 
However, CBI is likely to take Mohta to Bhubaneswar on Thursday night and to produce him before a local court in Odisha's Khurda district on Friday morning.

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(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)