BJP leader accuses Mamata of funding Jamaat

Senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Siddharth Nath Singh has said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee funded Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and alleged that the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has involvement with fundamental outfits, reports UNB.

Banerjee sent money taken from the scam-tainted Saradha Group to the 'outfit' in exchange for its help to influence voters in Bengal and win elections, Singh told reporters in Kolkata on Thursday.

He said certain newspapers --both in Bangladesh and India--had carried reports on the issue, reported the Indian influential daily The Hindu on Friday.

Quoting a Bangladeshi newspaper, which alleged Banerjee's relations with the terrorist outfit, Singh said:

"Mamata has a relationship with Jamaat-e-Islami." The story elaborates how the money from Saradha Group was stuffed into bags, smuggled into Bangladesh and the BSF's activity was manned by newly-elected All India Trinamool MP Ahmed Hassan Imran [founder of Bengal branch of the Students Islamic Movement of India]."

Singh said as per the Bangladeshi report, Banerjee's links with the Saradha Group went back to 2010 when she was the Railway Minister and had used the money to win the 2011 Vidhan Sabha elections and 2014 Lok Sabha election.

He said had Banerjee been innocent, she would have denied it and filed a defamation suit against the media houses.

The Trinamool MP, however, dismissed the allegations made by Singh. Hasan said he had no links with the organisation and was contemplating filing a legal suit against the BJP leader.