Saradha scam: CBI's second chargesheet names Trinamool leader, Assam singer

The CBI Monday filed its second chargesheet in the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam, naming company chairman Sudipta Sen, his close aide Debjani Mukherjee, as also police officer-turned Trinamool Congress leader Rajat Majumdar.

Businessmen father-son Aduo Sajjan Agarwal and Sandhir Agarwal, East Bengal club official Debabrata Sarkar and Assamese singer-filmmaker Sadananda Gogoi were among the seven who figured in the chargesheet filed in a lower court.

However, Trinamool's suspended Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh, whose name featured in the first chargesheet filed by the investigating agency Oct 3, did not figure in the document submitted at the court of the additional chief judical magistrate in Alipore.

A CBI statement said the chargesheet was filed in connection with a case registered against M/s Saradha Realty India Ltd. and others.

The chargesheet named many companies of the chit fund aided group - Saradha Realty India Ltd., M/s. Saradha Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd., M/s. Saradha Garden Resort & Hotel Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Saradha Housing Pvt. Ltd.

The cases were filed under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) and Section 4 and 6 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978.

After it took over the probe in May as per a Supreme Court directive, the CBI named Sen, Mukherjee, Ghosh, four Saradha Group companies and Strategy Media - a company owned by Ghosh - in the first chargeshet submitted before the court of the metropolitan magistrate here.

Saradha promoter Sen, and Mukherjee were arrested from Sonmarg in Jammu and Kashmir in April 2013 shortly after the scam into light.

Ghosh, who headed Saradha's media arm, has been behind bars since November 2013 for his alleged complicity in the swindle.

The CBI over the past few months arrested Majumdar, Sajjan and Sandhir, Sarkar and Gogoi.

The Saradha group firms closed shop across Bengal in April last year after being unable to pay back the depositors -- mainly poor people who, lured by the promise of huge returns, parked their life's savings with the company.

As the company went bust, many agents and investors committed suicide, and protests took place across the state.