Kolkata: It has been a month since Sharada chit fund scam accused Sudipta Sen was arrested. The scam has driven at least eight people to suicide, lakhs of investors lost their life savings and hundreds of agents have fled their homes. An SIT to probe the case was announced and a Rs 500-crore package was announced. But one month on, questions are being raised about the pace of investigation and neutrality of the SIT.
"The SIT of the police is not competent to carry out this job. They are not used to this kind of work, they do not have the infrastructure and they have many other things to do," said Sandhi Mukherjee, former DG IB.
Petitioner Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said, "The SIT is being headed by the DG of police, and who is that gentleman? What is his integrity level? His entire effort being the head of the SIT would be to protect the political bigwigs."
Sudipta's U-turn over a CBI probe has also raised eyebrows. The man who wrote a letter to CBI before his arrest had later submitted in the court an affidavit in which he expressed confidence in the SIT probe and not CBI and denied links of TMC members and the government, especially West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee....
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11:29 AM, May 23, 2013
Kolkata: Saradha Group director and close associate of Sudipta Sen, Debjani Mukherjee was on Monday remanded in judicial custody till May 31 by the Bidhanagar court. Mukherjee, who failed to present herself before the Bidhanagar Court a few days back due to ill health, was produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Bidhannagar), who remanded her to judicial custody till May 31. Yesterday Sudipta Sen, chairman and managing director of...
11:03 PM, May 20, 2013
Kolkata: West Bengal chit fund scam accused Sudipta Sen and Arvind Chauhan have been remanded to judicial custody till May 22. The court has reserved order on the third accused Debjani Mukherjee as she is in hospital. Mukherjee was admitted after complaining of stomach ailment. Meanwhile, Congress workers protested in Kolkata against TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, who is alleged to have links in the case. On Friday, the manager and...
04:23 PM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: Against the backdrop of recent chit fund controversy in West Bengal, a Parliamentary committee on Friday slammed such schemes with demands for putting in place a single regulator to oversee their functioning or scrapping them altogether. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance closely scrutinised the functioning of such schemes which recently led to a series of suicides in West Bengal. Senior officials from RBI, CBDT, SEBI, Corporate Affairs...
07:40 PM, May 17, 2013
Kolkata: The Saradha chit fund scam's suspected kingpin Sudipta Sen who earlier had reached out to the CBI accusing West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress of complicity in the swindle, has now approached the court opposing probe by the central agency. Sen, now behind bars, has not only filed an affidavit in the Calcutta High Court expressing faith in the state government's investigation as opposed to a Central Bureau of Investigation...
10:30 PM, May 16, 2013
Kolkata: Saradha group chairman Sudipta Sen, who has been accused of cheating lakhs of investors of their money running into thousands of crores, on Wednesday opposed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the complaints against him and his companies in an affidavit filed before the Calcutta High Court. He claimed before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi that the Special Investigation Team...
10:20 AM, May 16, 2013
Kolkata: Sudipta Sen's alleged aide Debjani Mukherjee, who was arrested in connection with the West Bengal chit fund scam, distanced herself from the Saradha Group chairman through a letter that was made public by her lawyers. Debjani in her letter, alleged that Sudipta masterminded the racket while she was merely a salaried employee who was manipulated. She also blamed the media for misrepresenting her relationship with Sudipta. Mamata government has...
05:22 PM, May 11, 2013
Kolkata: Chit fund aided Saradha Group promoter Sudipta Sen's close aide Debjani Mukherjee on Friday claimed she was only a "trustworthy employee" of Sen and that she was sacked for raising her voice against the company's fund collection method. "When I found out that my boss was doing business in a way that was against my principles, I started raising my voice against him. Not considering my dedication towards the...
05:40 AM, May 11, 2013
Kolkata: The Saradha Group chit fund fiasco has inspired a new movie in West Bengal. Tollywood has drawn inspiration from the Saradha Group collapse. All eyes are now on the latest release, 'Kagojer Nouka' or 'The Paper Boat', which metaphorically means an object that doesn't stay afloat for a long time. Incidentally, the film stars Dadasaheb Phalke-winner Soumitra Chatterjee playing the character of the prototype of Saradha boss and scamster...
09:14 AM, May 10, 2013
New Delhi: The Left parties on Thursday sought a court-monitored CBI probe into the West Bengal chit fund scam and accused the Trinamool Congress-led government of not intervening to check activities of companies with suspicious financial dealings in the state. Senior leaders of Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Communist Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc met President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh separately and...
03:25 AM, May 10, 2013
Kolkata: Chit fund company Saradha group's chief Sudipta Sen was on Thursday sent to 9-day police custody, along with two of his close aides - Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chouhan. The Bidhan Nagar police had sought a 14-day extension of their custody. The Saradha group allegedly duped lakhs of investors in a chit fund scheme. The police have unearthed 254 bank accounts and close to 200 properties of the...
04:46 PM, May 09, 2013
Kolkata: Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen and his close aide Debjani Mukherjee were produced in a court on Thursday as their 14-day custody ended. Sources said police were likely to add two more charges as fresh FIRs have been registered against them on the basis of the new complaints filed by the investors. The police were also likely to ask for their custody for two more weeks. "The 14 days...
12:17 PM, May 09, 2013
Kolkata: A Mercedes car being used by the son of Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen was seized on Tuesday by police. The car having a Haryana registration number and valued at over Rs 1 crore was seized from where it was parked at Deshopriya Park in south Kolkata, police said. Sen and his group director and confidante Debjani Mukherjee are in 14-day police custody for the chit fund scam. Saradhu...
11:40 PM, May 07, 2013
Kolkata: The CBI on Tuesday filed an affidavit in Calcutta High Court stating that it is ready to take up investigation into the Saradha chit fund scam if directed by the court. The investigative agency stated that the court must also direct the West Bengal government and all other State governments concerned to provide all necessary logistical support to them in case the court directs the CBI to take up...
02:32 PM, May 07, 2013
Investigations are on into the chit fund scam in West Bengal. There were thousands of crores of losses for those who can least afford it. ...
10:56 AM, May 07, 2013
Kolkata: The amount of property amassed by Sudipta Sen, the chairman of the Saradha Group, which has been accused of duping thousands of investors, will be made public by the police. "We are planning to make public the amount of money that Sen and his associate Debjani Mukherjee has made from ponzi schemes. We are waiting for a court order to do it," DC (DD) Bidhanagar City Police, Arnab Ghosh...
02:44 AM, May 07, 2013
Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch of Odisha Police on Monday registered second criminal case against Saradha Group chief Sudipto Sen on the charges of duping about 6,000 investors in Puri district, official sources said. The EOW personnel on Monday recorded statements of a number of investors from Puri town, Nimapara and Sakhigopal area before registering the case. Though a number of agents of Saradha Group...
10:58 PM, May 06, 2013
Kolkata: Continuing her tirade against the CPI(M) and the Congress over the Saradha chit fund scam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that the two parties had a lot to answer for and asked partymen to counter the allegations vigorously. "They (CPI-M) are merrily calling everyone chit fund thief. They themselves have to do some very serious answering about their dubious role during their regime," Banerjee was...
03:29 AM, May 04, 2013
Kolkata: The toll in the chit fund bust rose to five in West Bengal on Thursday with an agent of a chit fund company allegedly committing suicide by consuming poison at her home in Murshidabad district's Salar. Family members of 28-year-old Pratima Das said she took the extreme step unable to return the money she had collected for the scheme from the depositors. Das was crestfallen after she returned from...
11:20 PM, May 02, 2013
Kolkata: The Bidhannagar Police on Tuesday called tea trading firm owner Sajan Agarwal for questioning in the West Bengal chit fund scam case. Saradha chief Sudipta Sen had named Agarwal as the conduit through which key players in Delhi were paid off. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday started sealing offices of two chit fund companies in Entally, Dalhousie and Behala areas of Kolkata. She had said in the...
11:20 PM, Apr 30, 2013
