Kolkata, March 17 : Tollywood actor Bonny Sengupta aka Anupriyo Sengupta has returned Rs 40 lakh to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that he took from expelled youth Trinamool Congress leader Kuntal Ghosh, who is currently in judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore teachers' recruitment irregularities scam in West Bengal.
Sources said that he had transferred the amount to the account of the central agency late Thursday evening.
Earlier, Sengupta admitted that he took the amount as loan from Kuntal Ghosh for purchasing his new high-end premium vehicle. He also added that he repaid the loan by performing in at least 20 events organised by Ghosh. However, he was unable to furnish any document of such an agreement to the ED sleuths.
He gave his own logic for not having any written document on this count. "The Tollywood industry is an extremely small world and hence a lot of things work on trust. This payment made by Ghosh and me performing at events organised by him in return was driven by that trust factor. I have disclosed all this to the ED and I am ready to extend all necessary cooperation to the agency in the matter," said Sengupta on March 9, when he was for the first time summoned by ED for questioning on March 9.
Sources said that after understanding that return of that hefty amount was inevitable, initially the actor became puzzled on how to arrange that money within a short span of time. However, finally he paid the money to the ED to come clean out of the entire controversy.
Meanwhile, the ED has also asked Soma Chakraborty, a beauty salon owner, who took a loan of Rs 50 lakh from Kuntal Ghosh reportedly for expansion and infrastructure development of the salons owned by her, to return that money to the ED. Chakraborty has assured to return the money at the earliest.
/IANS