Saradha scam: Bail granted to Piyali Sen, denied to Shubhojit

A city court today granted bail to Piyali Sen, wife of multi-crore Saradha scam accused Sudipta Sen, but denied the relief to his son Shubhojit and sent him to judicial custody in a money laundering case against them.

The chief judge of City Sessions Court Mohd Mumtaz Khan granted bail to Piyali on three sureties of Rs 10,000 each. The judge rejected the bail prayer of Shubhojit and sent him to judicial custody till April 30.

The defence counsels prayed for Piyali's bail submitting that she had two small children who would be in great difficulty without her.

They also prayed for Shubhojit's bail on the ground that he also had two children and that his wife was finding it difficult to manage without him. Counsels for the Enforcement Directorate submitted that they would not oppose the bail prayer of Piyali on humanitarian ground. They, however, strongly opposed Shubhojit's prayer claiming that his enlargement on bail would be detrimental to the investigation.

The ED had claimed before the court that thousands of crores of rupees were collected from the market through the schemes run by the Saradha Group, headed by Sudipta Sen. This money was transferred to different accounts including those of Sen's second wife Piyali and Shubhojit, Sen's son from his first wife, apart from buying benami properties. Sudipta Sen was arrested from Kashmir in April last year and was in the custody of West Bengal Police since then.

Piyali Sen and Shubhojit, were arrested by the sleuths of the central probe agency after they were questioned for close to two hours on alleged dubious transactions that led to the ponzi scam which defrauded lakhs of investors across West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. The agency recently issued summons to numerous entities involved in the case and attached assets of Rs 140 crore of individuals and firms on money laundering charges.