Saradha group chit fund scam: Sleuths close in on Sudipta Sen’s ‘overseas links’

Sources said that during interrogation,Sen’s aide Debjani had revealed that the CMD had decided to escape to a neighbouring country from Kashmir on April 17 and they had contacted a person in Kashmir for help. As the person needed some time to make the arrangements for their escape,Sen and his aides kept changing their location.

The police came to know that Sen’s aide Arvind Singh Chauhan,who ran various businesses in New Delhi,used his connections to start a similar chit fund business in Kashmir,where they had cheated many people. His office was at Lalchowk in Kashmir. The police suspect that those who had helped Arvind start the business there also offered him help to flee the place. Details of some of the group’s property outside India have been unearthed,the police will conduct raids there. Debjani is supposed to accompany police during the raids.

Arnab Ghosh,Deputy Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police admitted they were looking into overseas links,but did not divulge details. “We are interrogating now,and so we cannot comment,” he said.

A team from Guwahati police interrogated Sen,as the daily Seven Sisters Post,run by his company,has also closed down. They are also probing whether Sen had links with Assam health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

‘Sen,Chouhan cooperating’

Kolkata: Sudipta Sen,Saradha group chairman accused of duping lakhs of investors,is cooperating with investigators,his lawyer claimed on Sunday. As per court order,he was for interrogationd,Samir Das,Sen’s lawyer said. Sen,along with Ponzi scheme director Debjani Mukherjee and company official Arvind Singh Chouhan,have been remanded in police custody for 14 days. PTI

Fund director beaten up by mob,arrested

AGARTALA: The director of a chit fund was arrested from his residence after depositors beat him up at Ranir Bazar area,about 25 km from here. The police on Saturday arrested Dipak Saha on complaints that his company did not refund the customers even after maturity of their deposits. PTI

CPM accuses Mamata nephew

Demanding a CBI inquiry into the Saradha group chit fund scam,the CPM on Sunday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew of being involved in Ponzi schemes and said she should come clean on the issue. “Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee,the leader of Trinamool Congress Yuva,runs a company which is involved in real estate and micro-finance and has made a huge amount of money in the last two to three years. Microfinance is a civilised name of chit funds,” CPM central committee member Gautam Deb told a rally in neighbouring North 24 Parganas district. Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee alleged that groups having vested interests stood in the way of Presidential assent of the Bill that was passed by the Left Front government in 2003 to clamp down chit fund companies. At the meeting in Panihati,Bhattacharjee said,“We feel the present government is trying to delay the process.”

Adhikary warns investors

Trinamool Congress MP from Tamluk Shubhendu Adhikary on Sunday exhorted people to withdraw their money from all other financial institutions where they have invested,saying they would face the same fate if the money remained in those concerns. Adhikary was speaking at an event at Belda in West Midnapore district. Talking to The Indian Express on phone,Adhikary,who is demanding action against party MP Kunal Ghosh for his links with Saradha Group,said he would like agents of such chit fund companies to work in schemes under NREGS to earn money in an honest way. ENS