West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could be staring at troubled times ahead as the Saradha scam trail seemingly leads up to her doorstep.
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.
Breaking her silence over the Saradha scam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would quit if allegations of her closeness to the ponzi company was proved.
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.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh on Sunday said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party had no link with the chit fund company Saradha Group, which has closed shop failing to repay hundreds of depositors' money.
It is intriguing that the CBI has shown little interest in the most scandalous and biggest collective investment scheme ever, from the Sahara group, asserts Debashis Basu.
The Enforcement Directorate probing the multi-crore Saradha scam money trail today interrogated Rajya Sabha Trinamool Congress MP Ahmed Hassan Imran for the second time.
Arrested Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Kunal Ghosh was involved in activities of the Saradha Group other than those commensurate with his position as the media CEO of the chit fund company as per fresh evidences that have emerged, the police said on Wednesday.
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.
The West Bengal government is committed towards compensating the losses suffered by chit fund investors in the wake of the Saradha Group's collapse, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday.
A large number of NRIs having origins in these states are understood to have been defrauded by many such companies, including the Saradha group.
A day after about 1,200 media persons from Saradha Group media entities lost their jobs in West Bengal, the state government extended a helping hand. On Wednesday, government officials are set to meet these employees to try and find a resolution to the issue.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday vowed that she will not rest till money is repaid to the thousands defrauded allegedly by the Saradha Group and said that a new law was being brought to protect the interests of investors. "I am happy that a new law is coming. However, I will not be happy till we are able to return the money to investors," Banerjee said, adding that many poor people had invested in the Saradha Group.
A court in Kolkata has rejected the interim bail plea of Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose, arrested by CBI in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam case, and remanded him to four days police custody
Hasty, ill-conceived steps show how isolated Mamata Banerjee had been from the national political trend. A fascinating excerpt from Sugato Hazra's Losing The Plot: Political Isolation Of West Bengal.
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to file an affidavit by Thursday stating whether the central investigating agency had been handed over investigation by other states into the multi-crore chit fund scam that affected lakhs of investors.
The ED had registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) in the matter under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her "political vendetta" charge over action in Saradha scam, saying she is pressing the "panic button" and "rattled" by the possibility that her "own involvement" could come to light.
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.
Lack of education and the absence of bank branches across huge swathes of the country puts more than half of India's population outside the formal banking sector.
According to official figures, only 30 per cent of the total population in Assam has bank accounts, reports K Anurag
ED had served summons to several English columnists and writers who had contributed in the Saradha group newspapers and also gone to foreign junkets.
Market regulator Sebi on Tuesday ordered Kolkata-based Saradha Realty India to close all its collective schemes and refund the money collected from investors within three months, amid continuing protests against the alleged fraudulent activities of the group.
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.
In a letter the Central Bureau of Investigation dated April 6, West Bengal's chit fund scam accused and Saradha Group promoter Sudipta Sen has accused Trinamool Congress Members of Parliament Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose of blackmailing him for huge sums of money.
The CBI action came a day after the agency filed its second charge sheet in the case alleging that former director general (state armed police) and Trinamool Vice President Rajat Majumdar and East Bengal Club official Debabrata Sarkar were beneficiaries of the money collected through chit fund scam.
The agency has also called former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh to Shillong on February 10.
Reaction to surge in applications, seemingly to hide identity as chit funds.
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.
The source said that the directorate would also question the suppliers from which the company had purchased those equipment.
Centre must share blame for Ponzi schemes with West Bengal.
The most wanted man of Bengal, Sudipta Sen, along with his close aide Debjani Mukherjee, their driver Rajeeb and another Saradha group official were apprehended from Kashmir's Sonemarg on Tuesday.
The Saradha group's fortunes nose diving has not only put a scanner on other chitfund companies operating in the state, but has also reportedly put a question mark on TMC's rural vote.
Copies of the bill, to be moved by Finance Minister Amit Mitra tomorrow for consideration and passage, were circulated among members on the first day of a two-day special session of the Assembly on Monday.
In an 18-page "suicide note" to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sudipta Sen has declared himself as the only son of Maa Saradha.
The chief minister said the situation was not a crisis and dubbed the protesters Communist Party of India-Marxist cadres.
An FIR has been filed against Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Kunal Ghosh, Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen and six others for non-payment of salaries to employees of a television channel run by the chit fund company.
The FIR was filed on Thursday night at the Park Street police station by journalist and non-journalist employees of Channel 10 stating that they were not paid salaries for the last three months despite repeated assurances, a senior journalist of the channel Bithin Sarkar said on Friday.
Govt, however, is readying new Bill that will give it more teeth to deal with such scams.
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