Kolkata, Nov 14: Suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh, jailed in the Saradha chit fund case, was admitted to a Kolkata hospital in the wee hours of Friday after attempting suicide inside his high-security prison cell.
Ghosh, a member of Rajya Sabha, was rushed to the SSKM Hospital in the city after reportedly consuming more than 50 sleeping pills. Doctors carried out a gastric suction on him. His condition was said to be critical but stable. He is on oxygen support.
"He was brought here at 3am in a drowsy condition. He is better now," said Pradip Mitra, the director of Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research in the hospital.
The guard deployed outside his cell at night noticed the MP was unconscious, and informed the jail officers. The local police station was informed, and Ghosh rushed to the hospital.
Doctors told HT he probably consumed tablets of the alprazolam group, a popular sedative, but it is still not known how he managed to get them inside the Presidency central jail. His prison cell is guarded by two securitymen.
A source told HT that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths will grill the jail authorities on how Ghosh accessed the sedatives.
Ghosh, in front of a judge, had threatened suicide on Monday unless the influential people named in the scam were not arrested within 72 hours.
"He was extremely depressed even during the last hearing (on Monday). We informed the court too. It is surprising how sedatives found their way inside the jail," said Soumyajit Raha, Kunal Ghosh's lawyer.
Ghosh, who was the chief executive officer of the media arm run by the Saradha Group, had earlier said he was made a scapegoat, and the 'biggest beneficiary' of the scam was Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
He had also accused other top Trinamool Congress leaders of being involved in the scam.
Alongside Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen and his close associate Debjani Mukherjee, Ghosh has been named in a CBI chargesheet in connection with the case.
The ruling Trinamool Congress indefinitely suspended Ghosh in September last year after he embarrassed the party by alleging that its top leadership was trying to frame him.
The shadow of the Saradha chit fund scam has been hounding Banerjee and her government since it exploded in early 2013. The issue had triggered a storm during the Lok Sabha election campaign, with opposition parties training guns on Banerjee over the scam.
Last year, the Centre had ordered a multi-agency probe into the activities of the Kolkata-based group in the scandal estimated to be worth around Rs. 20,000 crore.
The company's promoters and top executives were accused by angry investors of creating a web of companies across several states in eastern India to dupe small depositors.
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