The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Sanjit Chakraborty, a proclaimed offender allegedly involved in two chit fund scam cases in Tripura involving over Rs 7.75 crore. Chakraborty was arrested in Kolkata after being absconding since 2013.
The CBI has arrested five individuals, including a key figure, in connection with the LUCC chit fund scam in Uttarakhand, which involves over Rs 400 crore. The case concerns alleged irregularities by the Loni Urban Multi-State Credit and Thrift Co-operative Society (LUCC), accused of enticing investors into unregulated schemes.
'Around 15 crore poor people have lost their 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.
With the Trinamool Congress government stepping into the third year of its rule, it is facing its biggest challenge in the multi-crore chit fund scam which has hit lakhs of people across the state.
The probe agency is likely to take him to Bhubaneswar for further questioning.
A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said that the scams have inter-state ramification and directed the investigation be handed over to the central agency from the state authorities.
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.
He also hit out at the Congress saying governments in the past 70 years kept quiet on blackmoney because they were worried about losing power.
The West Bengal government on Friday opposed a prayer for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the multi-crore chit fund scam, claiming in an affidavit to the Calcutta high court that at this stage, credibility of the investigation by the state police cannot be doubted.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday demanded a CBI probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam in West Bengal and asked the state government to confiscate all properties of Saradha Group to pay off thousands of small investors left in the lurch.
The Congress on Thursday said that the West Bengal government was opposing a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the chit fund scam for fear that it would reveal information which would prove "dangerous" for it.
A SFIO probe into Saradha scam and 'chit fund' operations of 62 other entities has found serious financial mismanagement and siphoning off the funds by their promoters, who took advantage of regulatory gaps.
A Kolkata sub-divisional magistrate's court on Thursday sent Ponzi king Sudipto Sen and two other accused to police custody for 14 days over their role in the Saradha chit fund scam. Media reports said the bail pleas of the three swindlers had been rejected and that they were charged for fraud and criminal breach of trust under Sections 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
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.
Seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation under court supervision into chit fund scam in West Bengal, Left parties on Thursday accused the Mamata Banerjee government of opposing such a probe into the "unprecedented fraud" and failing to take any step to recover "hard-earned" savings of the people.
About 17 lakh investors, mostly in West Bengal, who have lost crores of rupees in the Saradha chit fund scam are fast losing hope. The scandal continues to roil West Bengal political circles with several ruling Trinamool Congress leaders being implicated and some arrested. Even West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's name has been dragged into the sordid mess. Indrani Roy presents a FAQ on what the scam is about and the main players behind it.
Sudipto Sen, chairman of the Saradha chit fund company, which has allegedly defrauded thousands of depositors, was arrested along with two other company officials in Kashmir Valley
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has sought to blame the Centre for the chit fund scam, has claimed that the central government reduced the rate of interest in small savings to drive depositors towards ponzi schemes.
Promising Central Bureau of Investigation probe into mining, chit fund and other scams in Odisha, Congress on Friday said it would review all MoUs signed by BJD government in the state in last 10 years, provide pucca houses to landless and allowance to unemployed youths if voted to power.
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A bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir also issued notice to other state governments and the Centre on the petitioners' pleas for empowering Securities and Exchange Board of India to regulate chit fund schemes in the country.
RBI has allowed NRIs to invest in chit fund companies on a non-repatriation basis, subject to certain conditions
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.
Though a popular savings option in India's villages and towns, chit funds have resulted in scams too. Here's what you must know about chit funds before investing your money.
The Saradha chit fund scam on Wednesday snowballed into a major political controversy with the names of two Trinamool Congress Members of Parliament figuring in a letter purportedly written to the Central Bureau of Investigation by the collapsed company's chairman Sudipta Sen.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the TMC, accusing the party of looting West Bengal for 15 years, destroying the state's identity through corruption and infiltration, and turning Jadavpur University into a symbol of disorder.
The electorate did not vote for the BJP as much as they voted against the TMC. This is an important distinction that the new government will ignore at its own peril, points out Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (retd).
The BJP's landslide victory in West Bengal has not merely redrawn the electoral map but overturned the operating logic of politics in the state, breaching the TMC's entrenched fortress despite a decade-and-a-half of dominance, minority consolidation, and a sustained "outsider" narrative.
Govt, however, is readying new Bill that will give it more teeth to deal with such scams.
Erroneously labelling it a chit fund may unwittingly give this questionable company legal wings to fly.
William S Pinckney was arrested by the Kerala police for alleged violation of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.
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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday conducted searches at 56 places, including the premises of Biju Janata Dal MLA Pravata Tripathy and owner of a local newspaper in Odisha, in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.
'Mamata did not stand up for those who suffered owing to the chit fund scam, but only stood up for Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar because he has all the knowledge about the chit fund case.'
CBI has registered three FIRs in West Bengal against Saradha group and 44 FIRs in Odisha against chit fund companies allegedly operating on the lines of Saradha.
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.
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.
Kumar is being interrogated at the highly secured CBI office at Oakland area in the Meghalaya capital where three senior CBI sleuths from Delhi reached on Friday.
The quizmaster-turned-parliamentarian was interrogated for about two hours on some financial transactions in bank accounts related to the TMC mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla'.
The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore, promising higher rates of return on their investments.
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