Rs.100 crore found in Saradha Group chief's 254 accounts

West Bengal Police have found Rs.100 crore in 254 bank accounts of Sudipta Sen, the arrested promoter of the chit fund aided Saradha Group, and were also looking into why the agencies which monitor such companies "did not" do their job.

"We have unearthed 254 bank accounts. We have so far seized approximately Rs.100 crore," Bidhannagar Deputy Commissioner of Police Arnab Ghosh told media persons here Friday.

The commissionerate, now probing the Saradha case, has taken Sen into custody to subject him to intense grilling.

Ghosh said Sen never kept money in those accounts for long durations. "Often, the money disappeared from the accounts within 48 hours."

In an oblique reference to the central agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Board of India, which monitor collective investment schemes like the ones operated by the Saradha Group, Ghosh said it was clear that such bodies did not do their job. However, he did not name any of the agencies.

"It is clear they didn't do their job. I won't take any names. We are also looking into why they didn't do their work. But that is only a part of the investigation, not the entirety," Ghosh said.

The officer said papers for two under-construction commercial plots in the name of Sen have been found in Chandannagore in Hooghy district.

Meanwhile, Manoj Kumar Nagel, arrested director of one of the group companies, was presented in court which further remanded him in police custody till May 8 on a complaint lodged by an investor at the Salt Lake Electronics Complex police station.

"His bail petition has been rejected and he has been remanded in police custody till May 8," Ghosh said.

Nagel was arrested on April 21.

The group's companies went bust mid-April and downed shutters across West Bengal after they were unable to repay the lakhs of depositors - mainly poor people from villages and small towns - who had parked their hard-earned money with them lured by the promise of huge returns.