Lagatar24 Desk
Kolkata, August 3: A firm run by Trinamool Congress MP Nusrat Jahan is accused of defrauding victims of Rs 5.5 lakh by promising to sell them apartments, according to a complaint made to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shankudeb Panda. The Trinamool MP responded that she had resigned from the organization in 2017 and had no further ties to it.
The BJP leader claimed that Jahan served as the director of Seven Sense International, a real estate company that took money from 429 employees of the Indian Overseas Bank in exchange for providing them with apartments on the outskirts of Kolkata.
The victims of the scam had already filed a lawsuit, according to Shankudeb Panda, and Jahan had been called before an Alipore court but failed to show up. The alleged victims of the scam joined him at the ED office. Additionally, he said that Jahan, an actor and politician, had utilised the funds for her production company.
“Nusrat Jahan is associated with that company, Seven Sense International, which took Rs 5.50 lakh from people. It started in 2014, but no one got any flats. The police did not even register a complaint. Finally, a case was initiated after these people went to court. I took them to ED with all the documents. If ED doesn’t take action, I will move the high court. She is using the money of these people in her production house. It is a huge scam,” said Panda.
Nusrat Jahan is one of eight accused named in a case filed under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (acts by several people with common intention), according to the summons issued by the Alipore court. Rakesh Singh, Raju Chakraborty, Ruplekha Mitra, Bishnu Das, Mahua Singh, Binayak Sen, and Koushik Das are the other accused in the case.
One of the alleged victims, Sridhar Lakhotia, backed up the BJP leader’s allegations. Lakhotia said, “We paid Rs 5.5 lakh in 2014. We had to pay it in three installments. We were shown a plot of land in Darsakmuktapur near Rajarhat. However, when nothing happened, I, along with several others, went to a consumer court and from there to the Alipore court.”
He acknowledged that he had never met Nusrat Jahan and had only learned subsequently that she served as a director of the company. “She was also summoned by court but she had sent her lawyer and she did not appear,” said Lakhotia.
Nusrat Jahan, a Bengali movie star and Trinamool Congress MP, spoke out about the accusations and said she was unrelated to the company.
“As per media, it is my company. I resigned from the company named 7 sense infrastructure in 2017,” said Nusrat Jahan.
The Trinamool MP was spotted addressing to the press alone, despite close sources saying on Tuesday that Nusrat Jahan was considering her legal options.
Jahan responded that she had taken out a loan when questioned about the claims that she had taken money from the company and used it to purchase an apartment.
“I had taken a loan of Rs 1,16,00,285 from this particular company. In May 2017, I repaid the amount to the company. I have bank statement. I didn’t have strong papers to get a loan from banks. Every detail of this is given in court. It is not a political matter,” said Nusrat Jahan.
She continued by saying that she didn’t speak yesterday since she was too busy shooting. Nusrat said, “I am not here to give clarification. Clarification is given by people who commit a mistake. I am sitting here and addressing the issue. Media trial is not above the law, let law take its own course”.
