CBI raids microfinance company, files chargesheet in Saradha case

The CBI on Friday conducted raids on several locations of Suraha Micro Finance (Sunmarg), a Bengal-based deposit-seeking firm, in connection with the multi-crore chit fund scams running across West Bengal, Assam and Odisha.

Conducting raids across 15 locations in West Bengal and one each in Gaya and Mumbai, the CBI sleuths seized several documents against the company alleged to have illegally raised money from the public.

Besides several locations in Kolkata, searches were conducted at offices and residences of the company officials in Howrah, Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts.

Suraha Microfinance is one of the several companies named by market regulator SEBI against which complaints of illegal money pooling were received.

Investors had also complained against the company before the Bengal government constituted Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen Commission to probe the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam.

Meanwhile, the central agency during the day filed a supplementary chargesheet before a city court indicting Arindam Das alias Bumba, a close aide of the Saradha group chairman Sudipta Sen.

In its third supplementary charge sheet, the CBI has indicted Das, S.K.Gupta Roy, a statutory auditor of the Saradha Group and the principal accused Sudipta Sen for criminal conspiracy, cheating as well as under the Prize Chit Money Circulation Scheme Banning Act.

The CBI has already chargesheeted a number of accused in the Saradha case including West Bengal transport minister Madan Mitra and former union minister Matang Sinh.