Kolkata: Sudipta Sen, the man whose chit fund went bust last week wiping out the savings of lakhs of depositors in West Bengal, was today sent to four-day transit remand by a court in Ganderbal, near Srinagar in Kashmir. Mr Sen and his two colleagues, identified as Debjani Mukhopadhyay and Arvind Singh Chauhan, were arrested from a hotel in Sonmarg, allegedly after a tip-off from his driver.
Here are the 10 big developments in this story:
A seven-member West Bengal Police team reached Kashmir today to take Mr Sen into their custody. It was on their request that the Jammu and Kashmir police detained the three people from a Sonmarg hotel on Monday evening. The accused will be brought to Delhi by flight from where they will be taken to Kolkata tomorrow by train. (Read: How Sudipta Sen was traced and caught)
Sudipta Sen is the chairman-cum-managing director of the Saradha group. He disappeared around April 13, as Saradha Group offices across West Bengal began to shut down and many of its cheques bounced. With a huge default in repayments, the group has collapsed, leaving lakhs of fund collection agents and depositors in the lurch. (Read: Debjani, the woman behind Sudipta Sen)
Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India or SEBI has barred Saradha Realty, a group company, from the securities market, ordering it to wind up all its existing investment schemes and refund investors within three months. (Read)
A Saradha fund collection agent allegedly attempted suicide on Tuesday by swallowing sleeping pills. (Read) On Sunday, a 50-year-old woman who had deposited Rs 30,000 with the company set herself on fire. Agents and depositors have been out on the streets protesting and ransacking Saradha offices for more than a week now.
Among the lakhs of agents left adrift and at the mercy of angry depositors who want their savings back, are those who say they put their money and faith in the Saradha Group because Trinamool leaders were seen as supporting it. (Read: How Saradha duped its investors)
An angry Mamata Banerjee, who heads the Trinamool Congress, has said the agents who say that belong to the CPM. The West Bengal Chief Minister has emphatically said she knew nothing about Saradha's shady deals.
The Opposition too has alleged that Ms Banerjee's party has close links with Sudipta Sen. They point out that Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh headed Saradha's media interests. Another Trinamool MP, Shatabdi Roy, features in Saradha's promotional material. And, they point out, Mamata Banerjee had inaugurated two Saradha publications.
Kunal Ghosh has said that he was only a "salaried employee" and knew nothing about the chit fund. Party colleague Mukul Roy has said Ms Banerjee or the Trinamool have no links with the Saradha group or Mr Sen.
Ms Banerjee has blamed the Centre and the Left government that preceded hers for the chit fund scam. She has argued that chit funds are controlled by the Centre, which she said had failed to ensure a law that adequately protects investors. She blames the Left for allowing chit funds to flourish since the 1980s in West Bengal.
The Saradha Group lured depositors and agents with glossy brochures and the promise of abnormally high interest rates. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has warned that the money has gone. "What's gone is gone," Ms Banerjee said.
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