Chit fund protests break out,Trinamool pins blame on Left

After meeting the agitated agents at the party office,Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy said,Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is serious on the issue and she has said that nobody would be spared. Law will take its own course. The government has verified the facts related to the chit fund companies. The documents reveal that all these companies got official registration and approval to run the business during the tenure of the Left Front government.

The companies got licence to operate from former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee with active connivance of UPA I. The Trinamool government does not have any responsibility for this crisis, he said. Non-banking finance companies started mushrooming during the Left regime. We do not have any link with the chit fund companies. The actual thieves are now trying to shift the blame on us to save their skin.

Roy denied any connection with the Saradha Group and its CMD Sudipta Sen,who is wanted by the police now. The police have already seized papers of Sens immovable property. On Saturday,they arrested a group director,Manoj Kumar Nagel.

We have arrested Manoj Kumar Nagel who is one of the directors Saradha Realty Pvt Ltd and Saradha Printing and Publishing Ltd. We have issued a lookout notice at all the ports to ensure that Sen cannot leave the country. We have seized documents of his property and have frozen his bank accounts. We are interrogating other employees of the company too, said a senior police official of Bidhannagar police commissionerate with which at least eight complaints have been lodged against the group.

Meanwhile,Sen is learnt to have written to the CBI,purportedly taking names of politicians to whom he gave money. CPM has demanded the letter be made public.

Interestingly,the Chief Minister had inaugurated one of the newspapers owned by the group. Also,Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh used to hold an important position in the company.

However,Mukul Roy,refuting the allegations,said,Kunal Ghosh was an employee of the company. He never had any stake in the company. I have asked him to hold a press conference and come clean. Also,the Chief Minister inaugurated the newspaper owned by the company as she was invited. She never inaugurated the chit fund company.

Roy said the government is working to bring a new law to regulate chit fund firms in the state.

Meanwhile,protests have broken out in several districts. Agents and investors torched and looted the offices of the group in Salt Lake in Kolkata,Balurghat in North Dinajpur,Kanthi in East Midnapore,Ghatal in West Midnapore,Murshidabad and Burdwan among other districts.

Agent kills self,others on edge

Amid the protests,a 33-year-old Saradha Group agent has reportedly committed suicide in Durgapur in Burdwan. Jadav Majhi was found hanging in a shop Friday night and his relatives said he killed himself as he was unable to pay investors. Majhi had been working as an agent with Saradha for the past one-and-half years.

Thousands of agents have been pushed to the edge after the chit fund scam came to light. They are selling off jewellery and land to pay investors. Rahim Dhali,an agent from Magrahat in Hooghly,said,I have to return at least Rs 80 lakh to depositors. I have not been able to return home for the past three days as investors have gheraoed my house. I would be lynched if I could not repay them.

Kazi Saifuddin,17,of Howrah,said,I have been working as agent for two years. I have to repay more than Rs 50 lakh. They are agitating in front of my house for two days now. We have sold our assets and repaid some of them. But now we are left with nothing. My father has taken ill. I cant return home until I get an assurance from the government. said Saifuddin,who was among the hundreds of agents agitating in front of Trinamool office in Kolkata on Saturday.