Initially reluctant to involve the CBI in the investigation on the ground that the central agency had not been able to make any headway into the Nandigram and Netai killings, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later changed her stance, saying that the government was not averse to it.
Nalini Chidamabaram, wife of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, has been examined by CBI in conection with the alleged multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
The alleged chit fund scam in West Bengal involving the Saradha Group revolves around a total sum of Rs 2,460 crore with 80 per cent of the depositors' monies still remaining unpaid, a latest investigation report has revealed.
The owner of a rural chit fund firm, active in two south Bengal districts, died on Thursday in Hooghly district taking the ponzi scheme fiasco deaths in the state to 14.
'I have tutored my family and myself to fight hunger,' the former agent for the disgraced Saradha chit fund says, his eyes welling up. 96 of the 107 cases referred to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office are based in Bengal!
Probing the high-profile Saradha chit fund scam of West Bengal, the serious fraud investigation office on grilled the suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh for over eight hours here and further questioning is expected next week.
Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating the Saradha ponzi scam.
The deal in question is the sale of Devkripa Vyapar Pvt Ltd, the holding company of Akhon Samay, a news channel that never went of air.
The agency has also called former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh to Shillong on February 10.
Since the Saradha group of companies went bust with its owner Sudipta Sen in police custody from 2013, its agents have been left penniless, homeless and have lost all hope of living a peaceful life. They are out on the streets, crying themselves hoarse for compensation. One of them writes an open letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for help.
The investigative agency plans to file a second chargesheet, naming more perpetrators in the Saradha scam.
Markets regulator Sebi on Friday imposed a fine of Rs 2 crore on Saradha Realty, its chief Sudipta Sen and two directors, Hemanta Pradhan and Monoj Kumar Nagel, for failing to comply with its earlier directions to wind up illicit money-pooling schemes and refund the investors.
There are four first information reports against Saradha Group in which it is alleged that thousands of investors were allegedly duped by the company officials and their associates who swindled their deposits.
Suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh, who was arrested on November 23 in connection with the Saradha Group chit fund scam, was today granted bail in the first among several cases lodged against him.
He is the first former central minister to be apprehended by the agency in the case
The Rajya Sabha MP, who is also a spokesperson of West Bengal's ruling party, was asked to appear before a CBI team in the first week of August, officials said on Friday.
Saradha scam accused Kunal Ghosh on Monday threatened to commit suicide if the CBI did not take proper action against 'those involved' within three days in front of a magistrate when he was produced before a city court.
Moving ahead in the multi-crore Saradha chit funds scam case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday attached assets, including a school, a cement factory and few resorts, worth Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) in West Bengal in connection with its money laundering probe.
Why did the West Bengal government ignore warnings about the Saradha group, long before the chit-fund scam surfaced? Indrani Roy/Rediff.com reports on how retired police officer Nazrul Islam blew the whistle on the shady dealings of the Saradha group, and how no one heeded him then.
Saradha kingpin Sudipta Sen had alleged in his purported letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation that Kunal Ghosh and TMC Rajya Sabha member Srinjay Bose had blackmailed him, and he was forced to pay hefty amounts to them.
ED, which has been probing the alleged financial irregularities and cheating by Saradha group of companies, has also detected that a high interest rate of 18 per cent was assured to investors if they invested in the groups' schemes for a period of 3-5 years, the probe report said.
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The CBI has recently filed a chargesheet in a court in Kolkata.
Dissident Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh, whose name has cropped up in the Saradha chit fund scam and who was served a show-cause notice for speaking against party chief Mamata Banerjee, was suspended from the party on Saturday, while two other MPs who had also hit out at the leadeship were spared.
Barbs were on Saturday traded between Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee over the Saradha scam in West Bengal which defrauded lakhs, with the Congress vice-president accusing her government of inaction and the chief minister targeting P Chidamabaram.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday attacked Trinamool Congress' arrested Member of Parliament Kunal Ghosh for criticizing her over Saradha chit fund scam, saying his remarks were aimed at "saving" himself.
The agency said the recall of the order granting Kumar an interim protection from the arrest was necessary.
State transport and sports minister Madan Mitra -- whose name has reportedly propped up in CBI investigation in Saradha -- and textile minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was earlier quizzed by ED in this case, are now at the receiving end of a public snub of the party leadership.
Rajeev Kumar, the Kolkata police commissioner, is known for his impeccable investigating and electronic surveillance skills.
Trinamool Congress MP and actor Mithun Chakraborty on Tuesday surrendered to Enforcement Directorate an amount of about Rs 1.2 crore that he had received from scam-hit Saradha group of companies for being its brand ambassador.
A city court on Friday remanded suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh to seven days' judicial custody after he dramatically recused his lawyer from speaking for him and then pleaded for either bail or CBI custody to 'assist' the agency in its Saradha chit fund scam probe.
The Enforcement Directorate questioned Trinamool Congress MP and actor Mithun Chakraborty in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could be staring at troubled times ahead as the Saradha scam trail seemingly leads up to her doorstep.
A day after slamming Narendra Modi as "Butcher of Gujarat", the Trinamool Congress on Monday demanded that the Gujarat Chief Minister should apologise publicly or face a defamation case for questioning the sale of Mamata Banerjee's painting.
The agency, which looks into white collar crimes and violations of companies law, investigated more than 60 companies in this regard.
Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday registered a record number of 46 cases in a day in connection with its probe in the Rs 10,000-crore Saradha chit fund scam naming Trinamool Congress' sitting Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh as one of the accused.
The apex court had last month handed over the case to CBI and asked the state governments to provide all logistical help to the CBI team probing the matter.
One of the key reasons for corporate movie makers, such as Reliance and Viacom18, to flock to Tollywood is the growth regional content has shown in recent times.
The central probe agency has also issued a notice asking general public 'to furnish information and particulars of properties, both movable and immovable as well as bank accounts, in the state of West Bengal and other places, if any, related to Saradha group known to them, with specific details' to it.
Suspended Trinamool Congress MP and Saradha scam accused Kunal Ghosh on Friday allegedly tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills inside the Alipore Central Jail, West Bengal Correctional Home Services Minister H A Swafi said.
Reaction to surge in applications, seemingly to hide identity as chit funds.
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