CBI files second chargesheet in Saradha scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today named former state police chief and TMC leader Rajat Majumder, Assamese singer Sadananda Gogoi and East Bengal club official Debabrata Sarkar along with prime accused Sudipta Sen, Debjani Mukherjee in its chargesheet filed in a Kolkata court in the Saradha Realty case.

Two city-businessmen Sandhir Agawrwal and and his father, Sajjan Agarwal have also been named in the chargesheet. The companies named are Saradha Realty, Saradha Tours and Travels, Saradha Garden Resorts and Hotel and Saradha Housing.

"The chargesheet has been filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant or agent) and 420 (cheating), and sections 4 and 6 of the Prize Chit and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978," said a CBI official.

Officials said, the probe "on larger conspiracy" and role of "influentials" is still on and if found guilty would be named supllementary chargesheets in these case.

This is the second chargesheet by CBI since it took over the Saradha probe following Supreme Court directive in May, 2014. While the first chargesheet was related to Saradha Tours and Travels case, today's chargesheet was in connection to a case against another group company Saradha Realty.

The earlier chargesheet had named Sudipta Sen, Debjani Mukherjee and former Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh. While, Ghosh's name is not there, today's chargesheet has named TMC leader and former West Bengal police chief Rajat Majumder. Majumdar, former IPS and now a TMC leader, used to serve Sudipta Sen-led Saradha Group reportedly as 'security advisor'.

Incidentally, while Sudipta Sen, Debjani Mukherjee and former Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh were arrested by state police before the Cbi took over the enquiry, others named in today's chargesheet were arrested by CBI itself.

On May 9, a division bench of justices TS Thakur and C Nagappan directed the CBI to launch a probe into the operations of the deposit-taking firms of West Bengal and Odisha including Saradha that sunk in April 2013 and specifically asked the investigative agency to look into larger conspiracy angle. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party had opposed the CBI enquiry into the scam.