Kolkata: The West Bengal government would appeal against the Calcutta High Court order upholding the primacy of the State Election Commission and asking it to provide names of 400 observers for the panchayat polls by Saturday, Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said. "We will appeal against the order before a division bench as early as possible because it is unrealistic and will undermine the federal structure and the state's minimum powers,"...
07:55 PM, May 10, 2013
Kolkata: In a big blow to the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, the Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered three-phase Panchayat elections in the state. The order establishes the supremacy of the state Election Commission that had opposed the Trinamool Congress government's demand to conduct two-phase elections. The court also directed the government to furnish list of observors as asked by the SEC by Saturday. The government was also...
04:35 PM, May 10, 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: The Congress on Thursday ridiculed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "campaigning against the CBI", claiming that she was doing so to prevent the truth from coming out in the Saradha Group chit fund scam. "A chief minister should not campaign against a central investigating agency. It is ridiculous for her to do so," state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said referring to a Mamata post on a social...
02:46 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: West Bengal is planning to start a social security scheme for depositors and investors to ensure proper return of public money following the Saradha chit fund mess, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata on Wednesday. "In the wake of growing financial insecurity, we are thinking of a social security scheme. It will ensure proper safety of public money and ensure safe and proper return. We will shortly put...
05:20 AM, May 09, 2013
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday assured industrialists of speedy clearance of land for industries and promised to solve issues related to infrastructure within a specific timeframe. Banerjee, who has recently taken charge of the core committee on industries, held a meeting with industrialists and representatives of different industry groups at the state secretariat. In the meeting, leading industry captains such as ITC chairman YC Deveshwar and Harsh...
09:59 PM, May 08, 2013
Kolkata: Illegal finance schemes continued to claim lives in West Bengal on Tuesday. Yet another agent of yet another illegal deposits-taking company killed himself after being heckled by investors in the Self Trust Enterprises Ltd. Self Trust Enterprises went under in April. Mrinal Monal of North 24 Paraganas who was its agent, lost around Rs 35 lakh of the investors' money. On Monday, the father of an agent of a...
04:51 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 wife of a chit fund company director on Monday filed an FIR seeking investigation into his death. According to the complainant, her husband was murdered by investors who mobbed him after he was unable to pay them back. Hello India chit fund director Jayanta Sarkar was found dead in Hooghly on Monday. Reports earlier alleged that he had committed suicide. Meanwhile, in another incident, the father of a...
07:51 PM, May 06, 2013
Kolkata: Two more people committed suicide in West Bengal on Monday over the chit fund scam case. In the first case, the father of a ponzi scheme agent committed suicide at Sodepur in North 24 Parganas. Sixty five-year-old Jagdish Roy was upset after his son who had a total liability of Rs 1 crore was heckled by investors at his house. His son Bidhan was an agent of Annexe group...
05:09 PM, May 06, 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: In a bid to prevent the Opposition from cashing in on the Saradha chitfund scam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will hit the streets on Thursday to shift the blame to her predecessors and project the action taken by her government against the 'legacy' of '70s and '80s. "The chit funds are a legacy of Bengal from the 70's and 80's. For all these years, CPI(M) and Congress...
10:12 AM, May 02, 2013
Catch the day's top stories with Rajdeep Sardesai on India @ 9. ...
11:29 PM, May 01, 2013
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday held a meeting with her colleagues and senior officials on the issue of Saradha group fiasco. The meeting came a day ahead of the state government's scheduled filing of an affidavit before the Calcutta High Court on steps taken against the Saradha Group. The meeting, which continued for over an hour at the state secretariat, was attended by Finance Minister Amit...
08:32 PM, May 01, 2013
Kolkata: The probe in the West Bengal chit fund case has widened its ambit to the previous Left government. On Wednesday, the police questioned the top aides of two former Left ministers. Sources said that the police questioned Anjan Bhattacharya, the assistant of former Housing Minister Gautam Deb and Ganesh Dey, the CA of former Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta. Sources said that the police were looking if illegal pay-offs were...
07:54 PM, May 01, 2013
Kolkata: Seeking to prevent the opposition from cashing in on the Saradha chitfund scam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will hit the streets on Thursday to shift the blame to her predecessors and project the action taken by her government against the 'legacy' of '70s and '80s. "The chitfunds are a legacy of Bengal from the 70's and 80's. For all these years, CPI(M) and Congress turned the other...
06:58 PM, May 01, 2013
