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.
The attached assets included buildings, bank accounts and landed properties held in the name of Saradha group and its directors.
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.
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.
Protests erupted across Assam against the Saradha group for allegedly duping its investors, agents and employees engaged in its various companies in the state.
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 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.
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 Supreme Court collegium has for the second time reiterated the names of two advocates -- Amitesh Banerjee and Sakya Sen -- for appointment as judges of the Calcutta high court "expeditiously", saying it was not open for the government to repeatedly send back the same proposal.
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 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.
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.
Saradha Group-run Saradha Tours and Travels tied up with IRCTC for operating tourist services to different destinations.
The ED had registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) in the matter under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
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 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.
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.
A large number of NRIs having origins in these states are understood to have been defrauded by many such companies, including the Saradha group.
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.
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.
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.
Also directed the company not make any financial transaction till further orders.
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.
A special task force of the SFIO recently submitted an interim report to the Corporate Affairs Ministry in this regard.
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 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.
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.
The former union minister has been remanded to custody for 5 days.
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.