The man who warned Mamata about Saradha

Why did the West Bengal government ignore warnings about the Saradha group, long before the chit-fund scam surfaced?

Indrani Roy/Rediff.com reports on how retired police officer Nazrul Islam blew the whistle on the shady dealings of the Saradha group, and how no one heeded him then.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has stepped up its probe into West Bengal's Saradha scam in the last few weeks.

Rediff.com has learnt that the CBI will soon question two Trinamool Members of Parliament and a West Bengal minister.

According to these sources, the CBI may also grill some prominent civil servants about their lack of promptness in dealing with the Saradha scam.

The central government, the sources add, sent several letters about the Sudipta Sen-led Saradha Group of Industries to the West Bengal government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

So why did the state government fail to react?

Retired Indian Police Service officer Nazrul Islam has the answer.

Islam wrote to the state government in July 2012 about the suspicious nature of dealings carried out by the Saradha group and some other firms.

Islam recently got in touch with CBI officers in Kolkata and handed over a copy of his 2012 letter.

Rediff.com is in possession of the letters and Islam's recent communication with the CBI.

• Read Nazrul Islam's letter to the CBI Joint Director
• Read Nazrul Islam's letter to the Principal Secretary, West Bengal government

Once close to the chief minister, Islam fell out of favour after he started questioning her 'high-handedness' around 2011-2012.

There was a controversy over one of Islam's books, Musalmander Koronio (What Muslims should do) in August 2012 when its publisher alleged that the police had ransacked its premises in search of copies of the book.

The police also reportedly 'ordered' the publisher not to reprint the book.

Image: Nazrul Islam. Photograph: Dipak Chakraborty