Saradha scam: HC seeks details of money spent by Shyamal Sen Commission

The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the Mamata Banerjee government to file an affidavit stating the money spent by the Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen Commission set up to probe the multi-crore-rupee Saradha scam.

The commission headed by Sen - a former chief justice of Allahabad High Court - was set up by the Banerjee government in 2013 to indemnify the depositors and to identify those involved in scam.

The panel set up with a corpus of Rs.500 crore and was wound up in October 2014.

The order by the bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Joymalya Bagchi came during the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by social activist Subir Dey, seeking to know the recommendations of the commission as well as the details of the money dispersed by it.

"We moved the court seeking details of the recommendations of the commission and the money dispersed by it to the people who were duped in the scam. The court has directed the state government to file an affidavit providing details of the money spent," said a counsel.

Opposition parties, the CPI-M led Left Front, the BJP and the Congress have all been demanding the state government to make public the recommendations of the commission. However, the Banerjee government has refused to yield.