The attached assets included buildings, bank accounts and landed properties held in the name of Saradha group and its directors.
Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday said it has lined up three properties of Saradha Group of Companies for an auction on December 16, at a reserve price of Rs 5.21 crore. The move is part of Sebi's efforts to recover money raised by the company from the public through illicit schemes. In a notice, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said the auction will be conducted between 11 am to 12 pm on December 16, 2022. The properties to go under the hammer include land parcels located in West Bengal.
Markets regulator Sebi on Friday said it has lined up as many as 69 properties of Saradha Group of Companies for an auction on November 1 at a reserve price of Rs 30 crore. The move is part of Sebi's efforts to recover money raised by the company from public through illicit schemes. In a notice, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said the auction will be conducted between 11 am to 1 pm on November 1, 2022.
Sudipto Sen, chairman of the Saradha Group, who was arrested in April last year after the Saradha bubble burst, today came to attend the hearing of the commission. "I want Saradha Group's property to be auctioned to return money to all creditors," Sen said while leaving.
Protests erupted across Assam against the Saradha group for allegedly duping its investors, agents and employees engaged in its various companies in the state.
In the past, the ministry had received complaints of alleged ponzi schemes at 73 companies of about a dozen different groups operating in West Bengal.
In February, the directorate attached properties of the group worth Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million) in West Bengal and Odisha under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating the Saradha ponzi scam.
The capital market regulator is looking into whether its Collective Investment Scheme regulations were violated while raising funds from the public, a senior official said.
Even as the crackdown on Saradha Group involved in the chit fund scam continues, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity, a leading NGO in Assam, on Thursday staged a mass demonstration in front of the deputy commissioner's office in Guwahati.
He was arrested this morning by CBI sleuths.
In further trouble for the chit fund scam-hit Saradha group of Kolkata, the Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case to probe the allegations of financial irregularities by numerous depositors against it.
On the back foot over the chit fund scam in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress on Thursday raised questions over the role of a senior Chennai-based lawyer who is married to a Congress union minister.
The 60-year-old father of a chit fund company agent on Monday committed suicide in West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district. He was reportedly distressed over his son's inability to repay money to investors, taking the number of suicides after the Saradha Group bust to eight.
Announcing the decision, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters at Writers' Buildings that the decision was taken following appeal by employees of Tara News and Tara Muzic channels for government intervention.
The West Bengal government on Thursday decided to take over two television channels of scam-tainted Saradha Group, which are facing closure.
The agency, which looks into white collar crimes and violations of companies law, investigated more than 60 companies in this regard.
Sudipta Sen threatens to disclose involvement of politicians in the chit-fund scam
The website has the address and contact numbers and email IDs of 69 branch offices of Saradha Group spread across West Bengal, Tripura, Odisha, Assam and New Delhi.
The chargesheet had been filed under sections 120b, 409 and 420 of IPC (criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and cheating) and also under sections four and six of Prize, Chit and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978.
Saradha Group-run Saradha Tours and Travels tied up with IRCTC for operating tourist services to different destinations.
A preliminary report on the investigations is likely to be submitted soon by SFIO, but the final report may take little longer, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot said.
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.
A special task force of the SFIO recently submitted an interim report to the Corporate Affairs Ministry in this regard.
On Tuesday, the authorities sealed a Saradha office at the Lalganesh area in Assam, after protestors ransacked the office.
At least 10 companies are currently being probed for possible violation of CIS regulations of Sebi, the official said, while adding that role of Sen and other top executives associated with these entities was also being investigated.
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.
He is the first former central minister to be apprehended by the agency in the case
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 accused were charged under Indian Penal Code sections -- 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy).
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.
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 CA insitute had asked the SFIO numerous times for details against the auditor, but it has not been furnished till now
Also directed the company not make any financial transaction till further orders.
In a written reply, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said three cases in West Bengal and one case in Odisha have been registered by CBI.
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.
As a multi-agency probe continues in Saradha scam, findings of one official investigation suggests that the group floated at least 279 companies to channelise money collected from gullible investors as part of a vast 'ponzi' network.
Former West Bengal DGP Rajat Majumdar was on Tuesday arrested by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
The collapse of a large deposit taker, the Saradha group, has brought protesting collection agents right to the doorstep of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose government has given a free hand to such firms.
The central agency had prayed for 10 days custody of the accused, but the court granted a week.