Left Front meets PM Modi, demands for unified probe into Saradha scam

A delegation of the West Bengal Left Front on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and submitted a memorandum demanding for a coordinated investigation into the multi-crore Saradha chit-fund scam and adequate compensation for the victims.

"We have requested the Prime Minister that since many [investigative] agencies come under the Central Government, there should be a coordinated investigation [into the Saradha scam]," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury told mediapersons here.

The delegation also included Left Front Committee of West Bengal chairman Biman Bose, West Bengal Assembly Leader of Opposition Suryakanta Mishra, former Rajya Sabha member Abani Roy and CPI leader Pranab Sengupta.

Yechury said that the delegation demanded that the reports prepared by the Justice Shyamal Sen Commission, appointed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal, be made public.

"The fact that there was a judicial commission appointed by the Trinamool Government in Bengal, its report and its investigations, nothing of that has been made public, or even put before the state assembly," he said.

"All the material that was collected there that also should be passed on to the Central agencies and there should be a unified investigation that should be done and the guilty should be acted upon," he added.

The CPI-M leader also said that another important demand that was kept before Prime Minister Modi during their meeting was regarding compensation for the victims of the scam.

"We want that the crores of people, who have deposited their lifelong savings in these schemes, should be compensated by confiscating the properties of these companies," Yechury said.

Asserting that Prime Minster Modi assured the Left delegation of taking this matter seriously, Yechury said they also stressed on making the government national small savings schemes more attractive so that people do not fall prey on keeping money in ponzi schemes.

"The Prime Minister assured the delegation that he will definitely take up this matter seriously. We have also made the point, that all these things are happening because the government national small savings schemes, those have become unattractive, because the government has reduced the interest rates," he said.

"Because of this desperation, the poor are putting their money in chit-funds which promise greater returns. Thus, we have requested the Prime Minister that they should also reconsider the NSSO's interest rate question, so that these government schemes would be made attractive," he added.

West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra, who was arrested earlier this month in connection with the Saradha chit-fund scam, has been sent to judicial custody till January 2, 2015. After being produced in Alipore Court on Monday, the West Bengal minister's bail plea was rejected.

Last Month, TMC MP Srinjoy Bose had also been arrested by the CBI in connection with the scam.