HC to decide tomorrow on Saradha petitioner's plea

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, which passed directions on the multi-crore Saradha scam case earlier, will tomorrow decide whether it will continue to hear the matter following a petitioner's plea to release the case.     

The bench, presided by Justice Asim Kumar Banerjee, will take a call on the plea by Subrata Mukhopadhyay, counsel for petitioner Basabi Raichowdhury, that the matter be released from the court so that it could be heard by another division bench.

Mukhopadhyay claimed before the division bench yesterday that his client might not get a satisfactory verdict from it, though he did not give any reason for such an apprehension. Mukhopadhyay had moved the court after the Saradha scam broke out in April last year and sought a CBI investigation into the scam involving a huge sum of money and spanning a number of states.

The division bench presided by Justice Banerjee had on July 19 last passed directions and recommended setting up of a commission by the state government in order to facilitate payback of money to lakhs of investors who had put their money in different ponzi schemes run by the Saradha Group.     

The bench, however, did not order a CBI probe observing that it was not necessary "at this stage", and directed that the state investigating authorities would look into the matter.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had on Monday submitted before the court that the Justice (Retd) Shyamal Sen Commission set up by the state to pay back investors' money had no legal authority to seize and sell properties of the accused.

It said that under the Money Laundering Act, only the ED was empowered to do so. Counsels for the state, ED and another petitioner who had also sought a CBI probe into the matter, opposed the prayer of Mukhopadhyay claiming that if the matter was released at this stage, earlier directions passed by the bench would be in jeopardy.

The bench, on hearing all the parties, said that it would take a call on Mukhopadhyay's plea on Thursday.