Chit fund director beaten up by mob, arrested

With the Saradha scam rocking West Bengal and north-east, the Director of a chit-fund was arrested from his residence after depositors beat him up at Ranir Bazar area, about 25 km from here.
Police last night arrested Dipak Saha, Director of 'Self-Trust', a chit fund company on complaints that his company did not refund the customers even after maturity of their deposits.
The accused was produced in a local court today which remanded him to five-day police custody.
Police said according to initial assessment the company had collected Rs 5 crore from people, especially from the tribals, with assurances that their money would be doubled in three years, but money was not given back on maturity.

The depositors had lodged specific complaints to police with documents of maturity of their funds, police added.
State Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury said many chit-fund officials fled from the state after the chit-fund scam surfaced in West Bengal.

The ruling CPI-M in Tripura, meanwhile rubbished a media report that the party leaders had links with some chit-fund groups.
Earlier, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had criticised the central government for not enacting any uniform law against the chit-funds in the country.
CPI-M state Secretary, Bijan Dhar said as the central government was not opening adequate bank branches in remote and rural areas, people were being allured by the chit-funds.